Cremation Innovations 2025 - Virtual Event
Join us on May 20, 2025 at 1:00 PM ET.
The world of cremation is evolving rapidly, and staying informed about the latest innovations is essential for funeral professionals. Cremation Innovations is a must-attend virtual event for those looking to enhance their cremation services, adopt cutting-edge technology, and meet the changing needs of families.
3 Key Takeaways:
1. A better understanding of the types of metals commonly found in the crematory, and how to recover them.
2. A better understanding of the differences in recyclers.
3. How to maximize your crematories capabilities to capture the most value from your recyclables.
Who Should Attend:
• Crematory owners and operators
• Funeral home professionals offering cremation services
• Cemetery managers integrating cremation facilities
• Anyone interested in advancing cremation practices
Why Attend?
Cremation Innovations will equip you with the knowledge and tools to stay competitive, improve your operations, and deliver exceptional service to families. Register today to secure your spot and gain access to sessions, exclusive resources, and a vibrant community of cremation professionals!
Sessions & Speakers
Kevin McKay "Keys to a Successful Recycling Program for your Crematory" Kevin will conduct an hour-long educational course on the process of recycling metals found post-cremation. He will cover the different types of metals crematories are most commonly going to come across, how they are sorted for proper recycling, how different metals are smelted, sampled and assayed for the most efficient reporting. He will discuss things crematory owners should be asking of a recycler to help them make the best decision when choosing who to work with. Questions can be asked throughout the program. This will be extremely beneficial to crematory owners and operators.
Brent Thorson "Cremation Innovation: 5 Ways to Catapult Your Firm Ahead of Your Competition" Learn how to position your firm as the go-to option for cremation families - in a way that your community AND your competitors will notice. From knowing what your next families search for online to making sure it's your name that appears when they're looking, you'll walk away knowing how to attract more cremation families. But we won't stop there! Once you have them, we'll give you some innovative ways to start the conversation differently, deliver unforgettable experiences and even include some extra tips on what we call "the basics" that often get overlooked.
Speaker Biographies
Kevin McKay is the head director of Cremation Recycling, a division of Mid-States Recycling (MSR), where he is in charge of client acquisition and retention. In addition to client support, he focuses a great deal on educating the crematory profession by speaking and writing informative pieces. He places a lot of emphasis on crematory owners and operators having as much knowledge as possible so they can make informed decisions on where to have their metal recycled.
Before working with Cremation Recycling he was actually a customer of MSR for nearly 15 years. While working for himself as a broker or in sales at smaller recycling companies, he always used MSR to process it’s metal. You could say coming to work for MSR in 2016 was years in the making as he has had a long professional relationship as both a customer and now a colleague. He’s born and raised in Chicago, where he now lives in the suburbs in Naperville with his two daughters, Molly and Katie. Although he ventured off to Florida and Hawaii for school and life experience, Chicago has always managed to pull him back. He loves live music, playing golf, ice hockey and pickleball. Working out, big dinners and whiskey are his other favorites.
Brent Thorson, Client Success & Growth Manager at LifeArt by Terrybear has been a leading innovator in families choosing cremation memorialization for 12 years. He has been a part of introducing cutting edge, new ideas in cremation products that have led to multi-million-dollar revenue generation in “new” cremation product categories. He is a strong believer that cremation means choice and options that families and funeral professionals don’t always know are available to them. One of his favorite quotes is “Showing is Knowing.” This continues to be a strong part of Brent’s belief that families need to be shown exactly what happens when they choose cremation. This continues to drive Brent’s passion to push our industry forward to innovate in the cremation memorialization category as the Client Success & Growth Manager for Terrybear Urns and Memorials, and recently with the company's newest innovation; LifeArt by Terrybear.
Kevin McKay's Contact Information
Cremation Recycling Address: 1841 Busse Hwy, Des Plaines, IL, 60016
Phone: (847) 298-0010
Kevin's email: kmckay@cremationrecycling.com
Brent Thorson's Contact Information
Terrybear Urns Address: 946 W. Pierce Butler Route, Suite 101, Saint Paul, MN, 55104
Phone: (651) 789-2972
Brent's email: bthorson@terrybear.com
