Canadian Funeral Directors Convention

I found out a few months ago about the Funeral Directors Trade Association convention being in Toronto this year.

I thought to myself that it would be cool to have a couple of my hearses on display in the trade show. Both '62s would look pretty sweet together.

I ended up finding a couple e-mail address's on the tradeshows website and sent them a note to see if they would be interested in having a vintage car or two on display.

I sent along a few pictures of my hearses and within a half hour had a call back from them saying they would love to have the cars at the show.
She was super excited !
I wasn't really even expecting a call back but that was quite nice to have a very positive call back.


All the hearse dealers in Canada will be at the show as well as Accubuilt.


I was planning on attending the trade show with "Digger" who came along with me to the PCS meet in Albany. Her family owns a Vault Company.
I guess I just saved us the 100.00 fee each to get in anyway.
When I got the return call the lady mentioned I would get passes to get in.


The details will be worked out soon and I mentioned I would take care of all the load-in and removal of my cars myself.


I look forward to it as I remember Dan telling me about the trade show he had 3 of his 59's at and how much the funeral directors liked seeing them.


I will let you know how it goes. The show is near the end of September.


Thanks for reading this,
Darren


P.S. Maybe I can get some of the funeral directors to join the PCS !
I just need a bunch of sign up forms now.

You can print them from this PDF File... Membership Application-Back-07-07.pdf

Thanks Paul !


I can do that quite easily now.

I hope to have new members signing up soon.


Darren

Matthew Coon


I couldn't reply to your private message about the word "Trade" vs "Profession" as it said when I tried to reply "you do not wish to receive
e-mails".

Anyway, here are the websites for the "Canadian Funeral Trade Association"

www.thecfta.org and www.thecfta.com

Maybe you can find the answer on the site somewhere.


Im not sure why they didn't call their association...
"Canadian Funeral Professional Association"


Im not a funeral director, just a hearse collector.


To me, the word "trade" refers to a profession, be it a plumber, electrician, accountant, funeral director, teacher, Doctor, etc.

In that "trade" or in that "profession" or that "line of work" all are similar to me.


Here is the help email address for them...
Have a question ? Ask a CFTA expert. ask@thecfta.org


Hope this helps,
Darren

hearses on display

Darren,
Congrats on getting your cars into the show.
Get plenty of pictures for us.
Have a great time.
Mike

Darren Bedford said:

Both '62s would look pretty sweet together.

Click to expand...

Congratulations and good work on promoting the PCS! I agree they would look great together (especially in Hudson, OH). Does this mean you have found a hood replacement and will have it done by next month?

What a great idea. Maybe we should try for some of the U.S. shows, both state and national. There are plenty of them.

Florida Chapter and long time PCS member Gene Williams had a couple of his cars on displayed at the National Funeral Directors Convention in Orlando a year or two ago.

We need to get in the lime light as often as possible projecting the image of the PCS.

Great job!!

Thanks to all for the replies !

Kevin, no hood yet but I have some Cadillac parts places that are going to get back to me after looking in their yards.

I will get lots of photos and spread the word about the PCS !

I hope to find some leads on old cars too

I will write up a story on the event as well so you know how it went after its over.


Looking forward to it !
Darren

Dad and I often display our ambulances at the EMS and Fire trade shows held in Baltimore. It is very good exposure for the vehicles and for the PCS - I do have membership info with me and usually end up with a couple people joining and lots at least thinking about us.

Darren, make sure the event folks are covering your move-in/move-out expenses. The convention center folks (not the trade show folks) often charge for "helping" you move the car in and out. While I doubt your convention center is as expensive as Baltimore's (known in the trade show industry as being one of the most expensive in the US I'm told), there still may be a cost and you may get the bill if you don't check first. Here in Balt., it's $150 each way for about a minute's worth of them pointing.

PCS advertising

Darren,

Here's PCS-2, which often appears on the reverse or as Page 2 of the Membership Application (PCS-1).

Jeffrey Hookway
Membership Director
The Professional Car Society
hookjch@ptd.net
(973)729-8083

Well, the trade show has come and gone, so here is my follow up report.

I took both of my 62's to the convention centre on Monday. Washed and waxed them both in the wash bay provided then took them into the fully carpeted event hall.

The whole room wall to wall was white carpet ! Never have I seen anything like it. The complete floor was covered in heavy clear plastic so it wouldn't get dirty while loading the booths/displays in.

I ended up cutting around the plastic and leaving it under my cars to catch any drips. I had white plastic tarps to put under my cars anyways but never had to use them. The cars did have some drops so it was great the plastic was under them.

There were some really cool booths. I talked with almost every one of the booths and collected some neat stuff. Eckels embalming fliuds were giving out bars of chocolate with their logo in them ! Lots of pens, Superior Coach pads of paper, decks of cards with caskets on them, etc.

Accu-built were there with their Canadian dealer showing their lastest S/S and Superior hearses. They feature a 45" wide casket area in their coaches.
The S/S had a remote hatch back that lifted the same way as my Pontiac mini-van back door. I have to lift my door, no remote !
(See photos - info at end of posting)

The show was Tues & Wed. Went real fast and I had a blast.

The comments from the funeral directors were outstanding.
Everyone loved the cars !!!
Some remember washing them when they first got into the business. Some remember their dad buying one or them driving a '62.

Lots of people had their pictures taken with them. Some people stopped for 15 minutes and asked lots of questions about them.

Many asked if they were for rent for funerals. There was a insurance company who said I could get a policy for renting them out for occassional funerals.

The ladies were really excited and said the cars were very beautiful.

I must have mentioned the PCS at least 200 times !!! I promoted our club big time !!! ...and I got us on the big screen that rotated slides and messages all day both days during the convention ! See photo !

I didn't know how to post the photos so I got Digger to put 11 pictures in the All Albums section of this site.
Please check out the photos and post your comments in this thread.

If you know how to put the photos from that location into this thread, please do !

I will post some more info on leads I got next week in a new thread.


Thanks for reading,
Darren

Awesome pics Darren. It looks like you sure had a good time. Thanks for giving us the info. There is a funeral directors convention of sorts in Erie, PA every year, but still haven't made it to one yet, even though they invite the Tri-State chapter every year. From what I have heard from the folks that have gone, they are very nice and thrilled to have our vehicles there. I am sure that you will be asked back, as it sounds as if everyone was interested in your cars.

a vary diferent look to the room. kind of like having the show on a snow covered field. way to go pluging the PCS.

Ed

I thought the exact same thing. It looked like it snowed in there after they took the plastic off the floor after everyone was set up.

I didn't think it looked that good with white carpet. Must have cost a lot to have it white ! I never saw any red wine spill marks. They must have been happy about that.

I did like having my cars in a big nice warm room with carpet under the wheels. That would be outstanding to have that kind of storage everyday.


Looks like we will have the Canadain Accu-Built dealer and his wife attend the Trillium Chapter Fall Meet Oct 15-17th so the PCS promoting worked !

Darren