February 2017

Page A39

FEBRUARY 2017

FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS

S ec t i on A

SHROUDS

GREEN BURIAL

CREMATION • PETS

www.kinkaraco.com

(415) 874-9698

The Original & most trusted

Cremation Innovations Summit to be Held in

Baltimore

NEWS

Educational

CONTINUED

Justin Baxley

WALL,NJ—

Today, more people are getting cremated

than buried, and “traditional” doesn’t mean anything

when it comes to funeral service.

With that come challenges, but also opportunities.

At the 2017 Cremation Innovations Summit, being

held May 5th at the Hilton Baltimore, attendees will

discover how to recognize and respond to both by: an-

ticipating the needs and wants of families that choose

cremation; creating memorable experiences with or

without a body present; communicating the value of

cremation-oriented products and services; improving

search engine optimization to outrank competitors;

and by embracing cremation as a profit generator.

“With cremation continuing its upward march, we

wanted to bring together some of the profession’s top

cremation innovators and consultants to share new

ideas that will give attendees some actionable steps to

deliver more meaningful experiences with cremation

families – and do business with more of them,” said

Thomas Parmalee,

conference coordinator.

Justin Baxley,

senior vice president of business de-

velopment at

Foundation Partners Group,

will de-

liver a presentation titled “Sharing Life by Design: A

Guide to Relevant Cremation Services.”

Welton Hong,

founder

Ring Ring Marketing,

will focus on “Outranking

the Competition Online.”

Nectar Ramirez,

direc-

tor of customer training at

Batesville,

will delve into

“How to Help Cremation

Information Seekers.”

Steve Jones,

director of

strategic business solu-

tions at

Matthews Auro-

ra Funeral Solutions,

will

focus on “Best Practices

in Positioning Cremation

Products and Services.”

Brent Taylor,

found-

er of

Brentwood Funer-

al Services,

a collection

of premier funeral homes

with several locations in

Tennessee and Missis-

sippi, will share how he’s

boosted market share

and profits by “Embrac-

ing Cremation as a Profit

Center.”

The Academy of Pro-

fessional Funeral Service

Practice has approved the

conference for 5.25 hours

of continuing education,

which Maryland, Wash-

ington, District of Co-

lumbia, Delaware, Rhode

Island, Connecticut and

numerous other states au-

tomatically accept.

Kates-

Boylston Publications,

which is hosting the con-

ference, is also seeking

CEU approvals from oth-

er states that do not auto-

matically recognize Acade-

my approval.

The summit is being