Dale-Time

The first day on the expo floor at NFDA Convention 2011 was pretty much a blur. There is so much to take in it’s hard to focus on anything in particular. I was busy saying hello to old friends and catching up on things and just getting a lay of the land so I can do some serious investigating on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I did see a few things that caught my eye and since I’m a technology geek I tend to look for that kind of stuff. Lexmark has a large format inkjet with software (42 inches wide) that can print collages for families. It’s and affordable package and I can see lots of great uses for it. There were some guys there from Adaptive Projections that are selling a big flat screen on a cart with touch screen capabilities like on CSI New York or like the national TV News folks use during elections. You can pull pictures from a bunch and enlarge them with your fingers. It was a little pricey but really cool. I saw another guy that was selling nice cabinets that had Flat Screens mounted in them and then could raise up out of the cabinet. They were very reasonably priced and I talked to him about making some custom designs for an idea I have for mobile units that use the same technology.

There were the usual caskets, vaults, cars, computer companies and far too many folks selling cremation urns. Genesis casket is showing off their caskets and creating some buzz on the floor. The models are still prototypes because production is still a short time away, so they tell me. There are several Chinese casket folks here and American companies that are importing some real nice looking and unique wood Chinese made caskets.

I also got a chance to say high to some of my fellow funeral blogger friends. Tim Totten of Final Embrace whose quilted cot covers and table skirts for private family ID/Viewing are selling good. Ryan Thogmartin from Connecting Directors, and Coleen Ellis whose new book “Pet Parents” is doing well.

Today I’ll try and get some photos of some of the unique caskets and other stuff.

And I’ve got just one thing to whine about. Today I had two women slide in late for a meeting and sit right next to me when there were tons of open chairs all over the room. I had to move my stuff and they just invaded my space. I know it’s not a real big thing, but it just bugs me. Plus they kept talking and then ended up walking out before the speaker was over anyway. Oh well.

I’m Dale Clock. Thanks for listening.

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Hello all. I’m at the National Funeral Directors Association Convention in Chicago. I’ll be here for the next few days attending meetings and roaming the convention floor looking for the latest new stuff that funeral service has to offer.

I attended a couple of seminars this morning about technology, advertising and Google. It’s very clear that the funeral world is going to need to get more involved with the internet to stay up with the real world. The main thing I learned today was that our websites need to be more mobile friendly. In other words people are using smart phones more and more and they need to be able to easily get information from our websites on their phones. Which will mean that we need to have a separate web site that is easy to read on the phone.

I also now know that Google pretty much rules the search and advertising world and I need to embrace everything I can about what Google has to offer. I recently listened to a couple audio books on Google and it’s first few years. It’s really amazing that in barely 10 years this one company has put so much information at our fingertips.

I will be making daily updates on what I am seeing. I also have my little video camera and will be taking some video of interesting stuff and maybe interviewing folks. I any of you want me to check out anything for you let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

I’m Dale Clock. Thanks for listening

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