This Adventure Includes All Education & Events
Cultivating Change the Biltmore Way
Mon., April 20. 8:00-9:45 AM
Learn how to cultivate change at your funeral home the right way. The Biltmore Estate, a historic attraction dedicated to the preservation of culture and artifacts for more than a century, has learned to stay relevant to today’s consumers. While change is rarely easy, you and your staff can learn to persevere and find success, using Biltmore’s time-tested approach to enduring change and leading it. This program will equip you with:
- Tools to thoughtfully plan and drive change-achieving results;
- Strategy and tactics to lead inclusive change that gains momentum and creates a driving vision shared by all members of your team;
- Actionable take-aways that will help you transfer Biltmore's best practices to your firm.
Learning Facilitator: Biltmore Center for Professional Development (1.5 CEs)
Sponsored by:
Reputation Management in Today’s Online World
Mon., April 20. 9:55-10:55 AM
It’s no longer just TV, newspapers and word of mouth that can ruin a reputation today; online reviews, social media and blogs also have an impact. In this interactive session, explore steps to ensure you stay proactive in responding to any conversations taking place about your funeral home. You’ll come away from the session knowing how to:
- Identify ways to build and manage your online reputation,
- Determine the steps you need to take to help minimize the impact of “bad news” in a timely fashion, and
- Establish a social media policy for your funeral home.
Learning Facilitator: Joe Weigel, Weigel Strategic Marketing (1 CE)
Deep Dive. Staying Competitive in a Cremation MarketMon., April 20. 2:30-5:30 PMWarning: This session is not for the faint of heart. You'll explore new ideas and forge new pathways in your cremation market, and participate in a hands-on, think-tank-style workshop with the end goal of creating new business strategies for serving cremation families. The deep dive will equip you to:
- Structure your cremation prices in a fair and reasonable way that isn’t a race to the bottom;
- Convert direct cremation family into choosing additional services;
- Find additional ways to serve cremation customers without losing money;
- Implement strategies innovative businesses are using online to market to cremation customers;
- Create a marketing plan for approaching cremation families.
Learning Facilitator: Andrew Loos, Cremation Consulting (3 CEs)
Engaging Your Most Important Asset: Your Employees
Tues., April 21. 8:00-9:00 AM
This enlightening session provides techniques for making your employees feel valued and a part of the team so that they will sing your praises in the community. You’ll leave the morning with:
- Insight into the experience and desires of each generation in the workplace,
- Four steps to employee engagement and steps for communicating vision and expectations,
- Best practices for how and when to provide feedback, and
- Tools for facilitating productive mentor/mentee relationships.
Learning Facilitator: Mary Andres Russell, Matthews Aurora Funeral Solutions (1 CE)
Solution Center & OGR Foundation Silent Auction
Tues., April 21. 9:00 AM-1:00 PM
Whether you’re hoping to grow your business or fine-tune your knowledge, the Solution Center will help you do just that. Meet with solution providers and industry experts to explore solutions, participate in demos for new products, and have a little fun. You’ll leave with tons of ideas for moving your business forward. You’ll also have the chance to bid in OGR Foundation’s Silent Auction and support the future of funeral service. Learn more about how to donate to the Silent Auction.
Creating Events that Will Get You Noticed & Lead to Free, Positive Publicity
Tues., April 21. 2:40-3:30 PM
Get fired up and get ready to learn how to draw more families to your funeral home. Discover how crafting a compelling pitch to get media attention will save thousands of dollars on advertising and help your funeral home receive positive and free publicity. You will be equipped to:
- Develop community programs with the end result in mind,
- Create a publicity plan that gets results,
- Learn to handle print, television, and radio appearances like a pro, and
- Gain lasting impact following your event.
Learning Facilitator: Nancy Weil, International Order of the Golden Rule (1 CE)
Quick Talks: Ideas to Move Your Funeral Home ForwardTues., April 21. 3:40-5:00 PM Gather for quick paced talks on key challenges in funeral service. Fellow funeral professionals will share ideas for how they’re succeeding in a competitive market. Topics to be covered include using community presentations to generate preneed leads, incorporating pet remembrance services to improve your bottom line, collecting biometric data legally, and more. Bring your own ideas to discuss. Email
Jessica Riddlesperger to learn more or sign up.
Continuing Ed
The Annual Conference will offer up to 9 CEs in states where approved. Visit www.ogr.org/ces for a current list of approvals.
