First off, we think we’ve got the name right at last. The Ideal Death Show. It’s sufficiently edgy to be eyecatching without outraging some of our supporters.
We’ve got the right location. Brum. Big city. Easy for you to get to.
We’ve got brilliant community contacts to advertise the event locally.
The show runs from Friday afternoon to Sunday lunchtime. The Good Funeral Awards (optional) occupy the Saturday evening. Come for the weekend, or just for the Saturday.
This show is for everybody. People love it because it gives them the chance to meet up with old friends and make new ones. It’s a place to debate ideas and share knowledge. Everyone goes home inspired. Nothing connects people better – which is why they come back year after year. It’s the social highlight of the funeral calendar.
How to describe it in a few words? Here’re some. Freethinking, diverse, open-minded and warmly welcoming. Unsolemn. Plainspeaking. Progressive. Creative. Great fun. Useful —
NO BLACK SUITS!
Most of the folk who come to the show haven’t got two ha’pence to rub together so we keep it as cheap as we can. The Good Funeral Guide and the Natural Death Centre give their work for free.
The public are invited and this year and lots are going to come. We want them to mingle and chat with the funeral people on a human level and on equal terms. No Us and Them, no experts dispensing expertise and ‘raising awareness’ –
NO TALKING DOWN!
We want the public to bring their curiosity and, in the process of learning about the death business, to discover that funeral people are just like them and that there can be nothing more normal than to die.
There will be exhibitors, all of them handpicked. But there won’t be the usual transactional scenario with stalls and selling, we want masses of mixing and chatting.
If you haven’t been invited to exhibit, let us know and we’ll see if we can fit you in.
The event is still coming together and will go on getting richer and richer. It’s the way we do it. There’s nothing cut and dried and corporate about this event, it grows organically, responsive to those who are coming. The talks and workshops are designed to be just as interesting to funeral folk as to the public.
Here’s just some of it so far – the tip of the iceberg:
SPELLBINDING TALKS
Ximena Hernandez-Hudson
What Does Dying Feel Like? The Science
Let My People Go
The Vital Importance of Being Buried
in the Right Place
How to Deliver a Great Eulogy
Create Your Digital Legacy
HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS
Claire Turnham, home funeral guide
Caring For Your Own: Your Final Act of Love
GREAT CAKES
There’ll be Death Cafes, of course. All sorts of things – a great richness of activities and happenings. You will be made welcome.
Book now and get our newsletter updates. And do, please, let us know what you think. For, as we say:
THIS EVENT IS FOR EVERYBODY
