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Whoa baby. I’ve met tons of people now and every one of them is a character.

GREAT BURIAL REEF: This is so cool! These guys build an artificial piece of reef and then they place an urn inside of this reef in order to help build up fragile ecosystems including the Great Barrier reef and reefs in Florida. Your loved ones not only return to nature, they actually add to it and they’ll even arrange an entire memorial cruise and service for the family. For a girl whose father is Hawaiian and a surfer, this is an amazing idea.

PET SERVICE ADVISORS:OK. How could I not take a photo of this doggy? Roberta Knauf, the resident pet guru at Hillcrest Flynn specializes in pet memorials and services. She is just one of those people you know is a caring individual. If you’re ever in Hermitage, PA give her a call.

SYMPATHY FOOD:This is a great idea as well. While flowers and memorial donations are wonderful, imagine having a friend send you some delicious food in your time of need? I love the idea of sending something that you know will not go to waste. I hope Respectance will get a sneak preview at some of Sympathy Food’s delicious recipes.

MEN OF MORTUARIES: You’ve seen the Fireman’s Calendar, well they don’t hold a candle to the Men of Mortuaries. What’s more, the calendar helps a breast cancer charity fundraise. What better way to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month?

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I’ve already met all sorts of fun folks at the National Funeral Director’s Association.

My first stop was the Aurora pirate ship. These folks are an incredible brand of zany with their pirate swagger and their one Johnny Depp look-a-like employee. I certainly wasn’t expecting that one.

Next I met Ramona Huth from Roadside Memory where I learned all about their 48-hour laser-etched memorials. I was amazed by how beautiful and sturdy these were and I just loved Ramona and the guys.

And last but certainly not least I loved Jose Aquilar and “Caskets to Heaven”. I know it may sound weird that a 29-year-old woman is already looking for caskets, but these are absolute works of art. And there is just something so special about a family-owned business dedicated to helping people. Ramona and Jose are the people behind these great companies and I hope I get to see more of them in the week.

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We’re ready. We’ve set up our booth (1046), we’ve watched the Six Feet Under funeral conference episode and we’ve checked our slide presentation. Tim Totten of Final Embrace has invited Richard to speak about Respectance and technology in the funeral industry and at 6pm in Conference Room #1 at the Las Vegas Hilton, we hope to knock people’s socks off. We have no idea what to expect from the thousands of funeral directors in attendance, but we’ve already seen a pirate ship display, an amazing series of Cadillac Escalades and some very cool artwork. Check back for blog updates and, based upon the Six Feet Under episode, some possibly scandalous photos.

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As some members have noticed, we have brought some great new features online this week.

We love getting feedback from our members and have taken many suggestions directly to the website. The most requested was a way to add memories directly from the Tribute homepage. People can now share their memory without having to click through to the Memory page. We’ve also enabled the uploading of custom icons for logged-in members.

Here’s a list of this week’s update:
* Leave a Memory - now you can leave a memory right from the Tribute homepage
* Featured Memories - you can choose which 2 memories to feature on your Tribute homepage, and if you don’t choose, the two most recent are automatically featured there
* Memory Icons - New, Respectance-style designed icons are available to use; logged-in members can upload custom icons
* Leave a Memory page - Page layout is different. More clean and simple.
* Business Membership pages - pages are now live. Learn more has updated text and info
* PayPal - live, working, and with the correct amounts
* Unsubscribe from emails - page now live and functional
* Breast Cancer Awareness Text - now on explore page
* Recommended Tributes - no longer recommending private Tributes

Anything you’d like to suggest? Send your feedback to feedback@respectance.com

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We continue to be an industry leader in our initiatives to support those in need of it. For the month of October we have launched a campaign to honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We have set up a ’super tribute’ for people to leave their thoughts, notes of encouragement, personal experiences, and memories. We know that 1 in 9 women will get breast cancer, and that almost everyone in America will be touched by it in one way or another.

We hope to gather these people together, and to give them a chance to tell their stories and to raise awareness of this disease.

For the month of October, all donations made linking through Respectance to breast cancer charities will go 100% to the charities. We welcome all people to set up fundraisers on our site.

Let’s join together to find a cure!

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