Dale-Time

I’m writing this at O’Hare airport in Chicago. Jodi and I are on our way back home after spending 4 days in New Orleans, LA at the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) Convention. Our flight to Grand Rapids was over booked and we volunteered to take a bump to a later flight for two $300.00 vouchers. I’m thinking that’s a pretty good deal for hanging out a couple more hours.

It was a good trip. We saw lots of friends, ate some great food and spent a couple evenings wandering down Bourbon Street taking in the sights and listening to music.

Some of you may wonder what it is that we funeral directors do at a convention. For some funeral folks, it’s a time for them to let loose a little out of the sight of their normal neighbors and customers. But for Jodi and I, we really go there to learn as much as we can and reconnect with longtime friends that also work in the Funeral Industry.

There are hundreds of different vendors that display their products on the huge convention floor. There are casket companies, hearse and limousine companies, computer and software folks, dozens of cremation urn makers, insurance companies, marketing folks, people who make and install crematory equipment and too many others to name here. We spent several days walking up and down the aisles looking at the new products and listening to vendors give us their best pitch on why their product was something that we just couldn’t live without. I didn’t buy anything this time. But I did take a bunch of brochures home so my staff and I can go over some of the things that I think had potential.

But what I enjoy most is attending the seminars that also take place. They start at 7:30 in the morning and go till noon. (which is a little hard for some folks who had too much fun the night before)  The seminars talk about new ways of doing business and better ways to take care of the families that call on us. It was very obvious from the meetings and conversations that the increase in cremation nationwide is rapidly changing the way funerals are conducted. It’s forcing many places to really start thinking about changing how they do business.

Over the next couple days I’ll make a few more entries about things I saw and heard at the convention.

I’m Dale Clock. Thanks for listening