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Conference Workshops

Saturday 13th June: 2.00 pm - 3.30 pm

The Phantom of the Celebration

Presenter: Dr Paul Power (Psychologist)

The role of the celebrant is a fine balance between being noticed sufficiently to stamp a degree of authority on the proceedings but not so much as to overshadow the main participants in the ritual. Some celebrants manage to walk this line well most of the time, even the most brilliant can sometimes experience difficulty either to recognize where the line is or to know that they have overstepped it in one direction or the other. While factors in the environment can have a strong impact on how the celebrant behaves in a given circumstance, and thus on how the celebrant is perceived by the audience, it is often characteristics of the celebrant herself/himself that get in the way of achieving the desirable balance.

This interactive workshop will explore some of the personal attributes that can help or hinder the attainment of your goals and, more importantly, your client’s goals for their celebration. Using realistic scenarios from real celebrations, it will help you analyse those situations and the factors that affected them, think about how they might have been managed more effectively and develop some strategies and techniques for your future use.

Debriefing for Celebrants

Presenter: Susan Lefroy (Social Worker)

Social Workers, like celebrants, work with people in circumstances that can be stressful. The two roles also share a burden of responsibility for delivering the best outcomes for their clients. In the course of her professional practice, Susan Lefroy has gained a wealth of experience in effective self-management of stress. She will discuss the nature of professional stress in the context of celebrancy, share her insights, and offer a variety of management techniques.

Take the Ceremony Challenge

Leader: Judy McNicoll

This is a practical workshop. It is designed to focus the knowledge, skills and creativity of teams of celebrants on a range of challenging ceremonies. We will not be looking at weddings, namings or funerals.

Saturday 13th June: 4.00 pm - 5.15 pm

Celebrant Express/Assist – demonstration & review

Presenter: Geoffrey Baird

This workshop will provide an opportunity to assess and compare these programs. The session will help participants to weigh up the costs and possible benefits of the programs to their own practice.

Themed Ceremonies – Mayhem or Magic?

Presenter: Ann Wilkinson

The aim of this workshop is to explore ways to develop the potential that themes offer celebrants. It will also identify the main pit-falls in working with themes and suggest ways to avoid them.

Working with Funeral Companies

Presenter: Sandra Bishop

Sandra Bishop is Manager Community Relations for W.D. Rose & Joseph Allison Funerals. Sandra is a very experienced member of staff and in her role she observes many funeral celebrants at work. She is well-qualified to advise celebrants wishing to develop relationships with funeral companies on the attributes of a good funeral celebrant from the company perspective.

Sunday 14th June: 11.00am - 1.00pm

Developing New Markets

Leader: TBA

This is a workshop in two parts. Participants will divide into working-parties and develop proposals for promoting celebrant services to several new markets. The groups will come back together for a plenary session to share and critique the proposals.

Circles of Wisdom

Presenter: Susan Carew

Susan Carew is a Rotary peace scholar, a jester and an analyst in a former career. In this workshop, Susan will lead us in an entertaining celebration of wisdom which will flow into the closing ceremony.