ICCFA 2022 Annual Convention Preview

Lori is back with Jake and Rob in this episode and as the Co-Chair of the ICCFA Convention, she gives an overview of the event. Jake and Rob both talk about the presentations that they will be giving. ICCFA’s Annual Convention is going to be held in Las Vegas from March 22nd to the 25th. For more information and registration details, visit www.ICCFA.com. #iccfa2022 See the complete transcript here: Rob Heppell: Welcome back to the Funeral X podcast. I'm Rob Heppell, and today I'm joined with my Funeral Results Marketing business partner, Jake Johnson, and the director of J3Tech Solutions and Performance Tracker, Lori Salberg. Hey there, Lori. Hey there, Jake. Jake Johnson: What's going on? Happy Friday. Rob Heppell: Yep. Lori Salberg: Hi, Rob, Jake. Rob Heppell: Awesome. Hey, now this is a bit of a unique episode, as we're getting ready for the ICCFA convention that's going to be held in Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino from March 22nd to 25th. Lori's got a special part with that. She's the co-chair of the convention along with John Bolton, and both Jake and I are presenting on Friday, the final day of the convention. So I thought it would be good just to chat about ICCFA and what folks could be in for if they're going to make the trek to Vegas. So Lori, tell us about the convention. You're probably the best person to ask. What's happening this year? Lori Salberg: Yes, I think what's really exciting is that we haven't had a convention for two years. I know from experience, the sales and marketing, ICCFA, did talks in January, and there was just a different buzz in the air because people hadn't been together in a really long time. I don't expect anything less. In fact, I think it's going to be even more exciting going back to Vegas. Being at Mandalay Bay, of course, that's just a great venue. And again, just getting back face to face. But we're already seeing an uptake in registrations and definitely, people are excited to be able to get back. There are so many incredible programs going on. I'm most excited probably that we have four keynote speakers. I think that's more than we normally have. And all of them on topics that I think are most relevant to what's happening in the world and our businesses today. Really, the program starts on that Tuesday and runs through Thursday. There's a banquet Thursday night. But there are leadership sessions starting early on Tuesday, and then a grand opening of the expo hall on Tuesday night with a concert from the Oak Ridge Boys. So that's going to be fun, just to kick off the party, right? And then really, the keynote is what I'm most excited about. We were able to get... John and I talked about it when we were first asked to be co-chairs and we said, "We need to get some big names in here. Even though we have incredible professionals in our industry, let's look to some leaders outside of the industry and how we can look at our businesses differently and drive more opportunities for ourselves." So we thought about really wanting to get one of the sharks from the Shark Tank, and we're so excited that we were able to land Daymond John. So he is going to be heading up that Wednesday night. We've got two keynotes. He's one of them, of course. You really just don't want to miss that. He's going to be talking about branding yourself and branding your brand and all of that. He is a bestselling author of a couple of books related to that. I don't think I need to talk anymore about his credibility, but definitely one to not want to miss. And then that same day, we have Lynne Lancaster. She is an expert on really the generational divide, so she studies generations. We met with her and we talked at length about the change in generations right now is impacting our businesses as a whole, and she's going to talk about that. She's going to talk about the boomers and the Gen Xers and the millennials and gen Ys.