10-11 a.m.

American Attitudes Toward Funerals: 2010 FAMIC Study

It’s been 15 years since FAMIC started tracking consumer attitudes toward memorialization and ritualization, and the 2010 study presents important discoveries. A panel of four funeral directors will present key findings about what your families know about funeral service, with whom they prefer to plan, generational shifts in expectations, satisfaction by demographics and preplanning statistics. Included are cemetery, cremation and green funeral findings as well. (1 CE hour)

Best Practices: Managing Your Accounts Receivable
Todd Wahl, Hunter Warfield Inc., Tampa, FL

Get a broad view of how collections affect your overall accounts receivable, as well as when and how to place a client into collections. Discuss how to select the right agency to meet your needs, what an agency needs from the funeral home and why they need it to collect your money. Also find out the proper time to write off bad debt from your general ledger. (1 CE hour)

Building Your Brand Using Free Social Media and Search Tools
Nancy Burban, Mayor and Funeral Foods.com, Stratford, CT

Become a brand or become obsolete using social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, blogging, YouTube, newsletters, RSS and search tools. Learn how to turn your employees into brand ambassadors through the building of influence, improving your reputation, earning trust and establishing your brand in your community. (1 CE hour)

Ideas Exchange Power-Hour: Ignite Innovation in 60 Minutes
Lynn Ochiltree, Ochiltree Funeral Service, Winterset, IA

To ensure that your firm is the funeral home of choice, it’s essential to exceed the expectations of the families you serve and maintain an active level of involvement in your community. This fast-paced, interactive workshop will provide attendees with tried-and-true, ready-to-use innovative ideas in key areas of funeral service that will help you meet the evolving needs of families and heighten your firm’s profile. Attendees will be encouraged to share their own successful programs and services that had a powerful impact on those served. Come together with colleagues and see how many unique ideas can be generated in an hour! (1 CE hour)

VA National Cemeteries: Fulfilling the Final Promise of Care
Steve Muro, National Cemetery Administration, Washington, D.C.

Learn about the comprehensive burial and memorial services provided by the National Cemetery Administration, the organization that received the highest overall rating in customer satisfaction ever recorded by the American Customer Satisfaction Index survey. Attendees will learn about benefits such as the new veterans’ medallion, memorial options for veterans who have chosen cremation and the progress of new national and state veteran cemeteries scheduled to open in 2010. (1 CE hour)

11:15-12:15 p.m.

Deathcare Expert in Your Community: Are You?
John Canine, Maximum Living Consultants Inc., Clarkston, MI

Explore how you can enhance your professional role in the community as the deathcare expert. So often funeral directors are not recognized as funeral goods and services counselors, nor are they considerd individuals who can professionally design a celebration of life funeral for families after a loved one has died. This is one of many reasons why hospice thinks it can do funerals and why Wal-Mart thinks it can sell caskets! (1 CE hour)

Preneed Motivators
Pam Kleese, Homesteaders Life Company, West Des Moines, IA

Hear insights from Homesteaders’ latest consumer research based on individuals who have actually prearranged. Funeral professionals will learn what causes someone to prearrange when they do, as well as glean marketing ideas on how to reduce the time between consideration and action (a.k.a. “the action gap”). If you’re involved in preneed marketing, this presentation is for you! (1 CE hour)

Risk and Reward – Have You Kept Pace With the Changes in Funeral Service?
Mike Russell, Federated Insurance, Owatonna, MN

The very nature of business requires taking on risk. How businesses respond and manage risk can have significant impact on their bottom lines. This interactive seminar will review real-life examples of challenges faced by funeral service providers due to changes in the services they were asked to provide. You will hear simple steps and processes you can take to review and reduce your exposure. You can’t afford not to understand and protect your business from the new challenges facing funeral service providers. (1 CE hour)

The Embalmer’s Tool Kit
Frank Walton, Tidewater Community College, Virginia Beach, VA

Embalmers are often tasked with restoring extremely difficult cases. During this session, you will discuss several embalming challenges and the chemical, sundry and simple household items that can be used to perform an expert job in a case where time may be limited. (1 CE hour)

To Serve the Living: Funeral Directors and the African-American Way of Death
Suzanne Smith, George Mason University, Alexandria, VA

In this workshop, historian Suzanne E. Smith, associate professor of history at George Mason University, will discuss findings from her new book, To Serve the Living: Funeral Directors and the African American Way of Death (Harvard University Press, 2010). Smith will discuss the relationship between the rise of the modern funeral industry and the African-American civil rights movement, as well as the history of race relations within the funeral industry. She will also explore the roots of African-American funeral traditions. Participants will learn how to preserve the history of their own funeral establishments. (1 CE hour)

12:45-2:45 p.m.

Advance Cremation Arranging
William McQueen, Anderson-McQueenFuneral Home, St. Petersburg, FL

Although they have the same needs as your burial customers, cremation customers think they are different. They do not want the traditional funeral arrangements you’ve been using for generations to satisfy your burial clientele. Learn how to customize your arrangement techniques to satisfy cremation customers. Gain insights and information that would take decades to learn through trial and error. This priceless session is designed to send you home with ideas you can put into practice right away so you can begin to reap the financial rewards! (2 CE hours)

Growing Your Business: Retaining the Shopper Call
Darrell Simpson, Graystone Associates Inc., Marlborough, MA

The critical roadblocks of telephone communication will be discussed in detail. Explore how any one of the four roadblocks can hinder your ability to hear a caller’s needs on the telephone. Participants will learn new techniques to overcome those challenges and practice their execution and the advanced skills necessary to effectively build trust and rapport with the shopper. Participants will listen to recorded shopper calls and practice evaluating these calls. (2 CE hours)

It IS Easy Being Green – Updates to the Green Industry
James Olson, Lippert-Olson Funeral Home, Sheboygan, WI
Cynthia Beal, Natural Burial Company, Eugene, Oregon
Robert Prout, Prout Funeral Home, Verona, NJ

Discover the latest trends and products to help the families you serve go green. Learn where “green” began and what other countries are doing. Also, gain tips for incorporating green practices into your business – from embalming fluid to solar energy. (2 CE hours)

30 Practical and Inexpensive Marketing Ideas You Can Really Use
Alan Creedy, Creedy & Company, Raleigh, NC

All too often, ideas that sound great are not all that great or they cost too much or are hard to implement. Come and exchange sound ideas that are practical and useful for preserving and building your business. This session involves a panel of successful practitioners sharing marketing ideas that have worked for them. The only rule is that ideas be practical, affordable and results-oriented. (2 CE hours)

Wanted: Jurors for the Embalming Malpractice Trial of the Century
Bob Pederson, Power Events & Training Group, Bloomington, IL
Scott Gilligan, Gilligan Law Offices, Cincinnati, OH
Vernie Fountain, Fountain National Academy, Springfield, MO
Frank Walton, Tidewater Community College, Virginia Beach, VA
Ellen Wynn McBrayer, Jones-Wynn Funeral Home, Villa Rica, GA
Jack Mitchell, Mitchell-Wiedefeld Funeral Home, Baltimore, MD

An embalming gone horribly wrong leads the prominent Rich family to sue Smith Funeral Home. Did embalmer Smith botch the embalming of the Rich family patriarch as maintained by the high-priced expert witness or did other unknown factors beyond the control of the funeral home cause this nightmare? You and the rest of the audience serve as the jury that will decide the fate of Smith Funeral Home after listening to dueling experts and sniping attorneys in NFDA’s embalming trial of the century. (2 CE hours)