The 1st International Congress of Funeral Directors makes visible the work of the funeral sector during the pandemic

>> Organized by Funergal, this event is the sector’s first international congress in hybrid format and the only professional meeting point in 2020

>> It has the participation of 20 experts from Europe and America and aims to recognize the efforts made by the sector to continue providing quality services to families during the pandemic

Make visible and recognize the commendable work that funeral professionals have done during the hardest part of the pandemic caused by COVID-19. This is being the common thread of the 1st International Congress on Funeral Directors organized by Funergal and which started this morning in Expourense. The International Fair on Funeral Products and Services has had to readjust to the current situation and after two postponements (it will be held in May 2022) it has become this congress, which is the first hybrid event (with face-to-face and online part) of this sector worldwide, being also the only professional meeting point in the sector in 2020.

How could it be otherwise, COVID-19 is being one of the main threads of this congress. As explained by the director of Funergal, Emma González, during the opening ceremony “during the hardest hours of the first wave of the pandemic, it was evident that funeral professionals are essential workers of our society, and yet we are aware that they are not getting the visibility and recognition they deserve ”. The opening ceremony was attended by institutional representatives such as the Vice President of the Provincial Council of Ourense, Rosendo Fernández; the head of the Tourism service in Ourense of the Xunta de Galicia, Cecilio Santalices, and the representatives of the associations of funeral professionals of Ourense (APEFO); Antonio García Aliende; from FEGASERFU, José Becerra; of AGESEF, José Luis Varela. The secretary general of the Spanish Association of Funeral Services – PANASEF, Alfredo Gosálvez, also intervened online at this event, who once again claimed “the pride of being a funeral”.

This congress began with the conference on thanatopraxia in times of pandemic in which the thanatopractor and vice president of FEGASERFU (Galician Fed. Of Funeral Services), Jorge Balado, commented that “the pandemic has forced us to see the need to work safely. If we work safely, the coronavirus is as dangerous as any other infectious element that we deal with every day, but we have to put all the means so that we can work in the best way and protect ourselves and our employees. He also made reference to the toughest moments of the pandemic, stating that “Mourning a death is a process that requires a ritual. In the situation we are experiencing, with limitations of all kinds due to the pandemic and coronavirus outbreaks, dramatic and very sad scenes are repeated ”Most of them derived from the impossibility of holding wakes or funerals, cutting back on the support of family friends. We have seen gruesome situations such as funerals without people or with a limited presence of three people ”. Finally, he claimed that “our job is to also help carry the duel in the best possible way.”

This 1st International Congress of Funeral Directors is counting on the participation of 20 speakers from 4 countries (Spain, Portugal, Italy and Mexico) and in addition to analyzing the challenges in the management of funeral services in times of COVID, this congress is serving also to share experiences from different communities and countries, which may be useful in the future, and also to share cultural content, tools that favor the internationalization of companies, energy efficiency and communication of the same.

During the first day, they talked about necrotourism and the enhancement of heritage cemeteries; from the application of new technologies to funeral services and funeral communication that begins at the very moment of the first phone call since “families are the most important of all. All communication work depends on the first contact with them ”, said the speaker Agustín Palacio, from Innova Funeraria. The afternoon session was dedicated to international presentations with a presentation on funeral marketing and sales focused on digital tributes of the life of the deceased offered by the Mexican expert Beto Gil and with another on the impact of the pandemic on funeral services in Italy , the first European country that was severely punished by COVID-19 and taught by the former president of the cemeteries working committee of the European Federation of Funeral Services and that has participated thanks to the collaboration agreements that Funergal maintains with the Tanexpo fair in Bologna, and the specialized magazine in the fuenerario sector Oltre Magazine.

This Congress has the support of the Provincial Council of Ourense and Galicia Tourism, since complementary activities include visits to Ribadavia, the historic center of Ourense and the Ribeira Sacra. It also has the collaboration of important companies such as PARCESA, Vivo Recuerdo, IDETER or INFUNER and the main professional associations of the sector at the regional, state and peninsular level (PANASEF, AFCM, ALPAR, FEGASERFU, AGESEF, APEFO, APPSF and ANEL). Both the full program and the entries can be found at www.funergal.com.