It’ll be the third time we’ve done it, and it will have its third working title: Good Funeral Awards. It keeps on getting bigger and it keeps on changing its shape. We hope that this year will be better than ever. We’ve tried to keep prices as low as possible. Do come.
We’ve published a manifesto: Bomo2013. And of course there’s a website. There will also be a tv programme about last year’s event. You can watch it on Sky 1 at 8.30pm on 18 July – a full hour’s documentary with lots of backstory about Funeralworld’s finest.
The Twitter hashtag is #bomo2013
This is what we’re working hard to create : An inclusive, unstuffy, chatty event, which attracts the liveliest minds in Funeralworld and the general public, and strives to be useful.
No one has ownership of the event. It belongs to all who participate. Brian Jenner is our lead organiser and host.
This is what we seek to achieve:
* to bring together the tribes of Funeralworld – the undertakers, the celebrants, the makers of merchandise, the raisers of awareness and the consumer advocates
* to promote among them opportunities to connect, exchange views and experiences, share best practice and generate synergistic capital
* to encourage members of the public to drop in, mix, eavesdrop, learn, inquire, question and contribute on an equal footing
* to debate issues around longevity, dying, the care of the dead, funerals, commemoration and grief
* to promote an enrichment of the commemoration of the dead in ways which meet contemporary cultural, emotional and spiritual needs
* to focus on practicality by exploring observances and rituals which are capable of adoption or repurposing by bereaved people in Britain today
* to be welcomingly inclusive — to reflect and respect all schools of thought from the trad to the progressive
* to promote greater public engagement with dying, death and commemoration and thereby stimulate social change
* to promote the empowerment of the bereaved
* to stage the Good Funeral Awards + dinner dance
* to attract publicity to our work in the media
* to have fun by the sea.
It’s not going to be one of those events where you sit in a darkened room being talked at all day. There will be discussion groups, indoors and out. Dr Ben Sessa will talk to anyone who wants to listen about the use of psychoactive drugs in palliative care. For the ‘general public’ there will be a panel event: ‘So you want to do it all yourself?’ offering support, guidance and advice for self-helpers & considering how undertakers and celebrants can support bereaved people who want to take ownership of all or part of the process.
Find out more: go to the Good Funeral Awards website and download the manifesto Bomo2013.
We really hope we’ll see you at Britain’s Copacabana: Bournemouth.
‘Dying is Bournemouth’s largest leisure activity, after carpet bowls and complaining to the Council’