Industry Expertise
Funeral directors, cemetery operators, crematory managers, preneed professionals, and aftercare teams know exactly where the work breaks down.
A proposal for ICCFA Experience 2027
The Future of Deathcare Should Be Built by the People Who Know It Best.
ICCFA has an opportunity to introduce a new kind of conference experience — one where members move beyond learning about innovation and begin creating it themselves.
Proposal · Subject to partnership approval
Why now
A New Era of Accessible Innovation
AI-assisted development has quietly removed the barrier that kept most professionals out of software creation. Building an application no longer requires a developer, a budget, or a development cycle — it requires a clear description of a problem you understand better than anyone.
Accessible Technology
AI-assisted builders turn plain-language descriptions into working software, which removes the barrier that kept most professionals out of product creation.
Collaborative Education
Learning happens in a room with peers, mentors, and real problems — not in a slide deck about tools.
“The next meaningful deathcare innovation may come from someone who has never written a line of code.”
Why ICCFA
An Opportunity to Lead a New Era of Industry Innovation
Five reasons this belongs inside the association’s conference rather than outside it.
Member Empowerment
Help professionals build confidence using emerging technology — starting from the expertise they already have, not from a blank screen.
Conference Differentiation
Create a hands-on experience where attendees leave with something tangible rather than a notebook of slides.
Practical AI Education
Move beyond presentations into experiential learning, where the tool is used by the person who will have to live with the result.
Industry Collaboration
Connect professionals across funeral service, cemeteries, cremation, and aftercare around problems they share.
Lasting Member Value
Create a collection of member-generated ideas and prototypes the association can build on year after year.
Why it makes sense
Why ICCFA Is the Natural Home for This.
The reasoning behind proposing the lab inside ICCFA Experience rather than as a standalone event.
The right people are already in the room
ICCFA Experience gathers the operators, cemeterians, cremation and preneed professionals who live these problems every day. The lab needs exactly that expertise — and nowhere else assembles it in one place.
It extends the association's education mission
ICCFA already exists to help members learn and improve. Hands-on building is the next step from sessions about technology to members using it themselves.
Members keep ownership of the solution
Instead of waiting on a vendor roadmap, a member can shape a tool around how their own firm actually works — and the association is where they learned to do it.
Low risk, clearly bounded pilot
One proposed workshop space over three days, with the organizing team carrying the platform and operational load. ICCFA can evaluate the results before committing to anything more.
Traditional conference vs. innovation lab
Same audience. Different outcome.
The Innovation Lab does not replace the conference program. It adds the one thing a session cannot deliver: something the attendee made.
Traditional conference
Innovation Lab
- Learn about technologyUse technology
- Hear ideasBuild ideas
- Watch demonstrationsCreate demonstrations
- NetworkCollaborate
- Leave inspiredLeave with a prototype
- One-time sessionPotential ongoing learning community
Proposed pilot
What the pilot would look like.
An executive summary of the activation as currently conceived. Every line is subject to further discussion and agreement.
- Conference
- ICCFA Experience 2027
- Location
- Denver, Colorado
- Dates
- April 14–16, 2027
- Capacity
- 75–100 participants, proposed
- Team size
- 1–4
- Format
- Guided no-code hackathon
- Platform
- Lovable, proposed
Proposed program
- Ideas submitted before the event
- Participant selection
- Pre-event orientation
- Guided building
- Mentorship
- Prototype submission
- Live showcase
- Recognition and awards
Programming, staffing, costs, and commitments require further agreement and are not yet confirmed.
Proposed three-day journey
Refine. Create. Showcase.
A shape for the week, not a schedule. Session times are deliberately left open until programming is agreed.
Day 1
Refine & Prep
Participants are already selected and arrive with refined ideas. Day 1 sharpens the plan with coaches and gets everyone set up with their tools, ready to build.
- Welcome and orientation
- Set up your own Lovable account and tools
- Refine the brief with your coach
- Map the screens you'll build
- First build session
Day 2
Create
Teams build, test with real users in the room, and learn what their prototype actually needs to prove.
- Guided building
- Mentor support
- Prototype testing
- Product refinement
- Submission preparation
Day 3
Showcase
Prototypes go on screen. Feedback is gathered, work is recognized, and the question of what happens next is put on the table.
- Final demonstrations
- Judging
- Audience engagement
- Recognition
- Closing celebration
Technology sponsorship
Removing the Financial and Technical Barriers
The organizing team intends to pursue Lovable as Founding Technology Sponsor. The proposed sponsorship would provide complimentary building credits to approved participants and support through learning resources, mentorship, and onboarding.
That would make participation possible without every attendee independently purchasing development resources. Sponsorship is not confirmed, and no credits have been promised to any participant.
The barrier is rarely the idea. It is access to the tools and the confidence to use them.
- Complimentary build credits for approved participants
- Onboarding materials and an introductory workshop
- Mentor and ambassador participation
All quantities and benefits are proposed and subject to approval.
What we ask of ICCFA
A shared division of work.
The association contributes access, coordination, and judgment. The organizing team contributes the platform, the materials, and the operational load.
ICCFA support requested
- Approval to explore the activation
- Event programming coordination
- Appropriate workshop space
- Conference promotion
- Help recruiting mentors and judges
- Guidance on sponsorship and branding
- A conference coordination contact
Proposed organizing team responsibilities
- Build the digital platform
- Develop participant materials
- Prepare workshops
- Coordinate technical support
- Manage the build experience
- Support submissions
- Operate the showcase
- Provide outcome reporting
Responsibilities, staffing, costs, and commitments require further agreement between all parties.
After Denver
Participants Go Home Able to Keep Building.
The goal isn't a demo that stays in the convention center. Every participant is meant to leave with their own account, their own build, and a clear path to continue on their own.
Their own account
Participants build in their own Lovable account, not a shared demo — so the work stays theirs when the event ends.
A working build
A clickable, working prototype of their idea, with a live link they can show their team and leadership.
Their solution and plan
The refined brief, coach notes and a build plan describing the next steps to make it real at their firm.
The skills to keep going
Enough hands-on practice to keep improving the app independently, with proposed follow-up workshops and check-ins for support.
Proposed. Account access, credits and follow-up support depend on partnership agreements.
Measuring success
What we would report back — at the event and after.
No results are claimed here. These are the proposed measures, reported after the event and again at follow-up check-ins to show whether participants kept building on their own.
Ideas Submitted
Submissions received ahead of participant selection
Ideas Defined
Challenges scoped into buildable ideas before the event
Prototypes Built
Working applications demonstrated at the showcase
Participant Learning Feedback
Self-reported confidence after the event
Accounts Still Active
Participants still building on their own account at follow-up check-ins
Projects Continuing After the Event
Prototypes still being improved, piloted or used back home
Beyond Denver
What Begins at ICCFA Experience Could Continue All Year.
The pilot is designed as a first step. These are opportunities the format could open — possibilities, not commitments.
- Virtual build workshops
- Member innovation challenges
- Collaborative problem-solving
- Member-created prototype gallery
- Continued mentorship
- AI education
- Industry innovation community
What If ICCFA Helped Its Members Become the Innovators?
Deathcare doesn’t lack ideas. It needs accessible ways to turn those ideas into possibilities. Deathcare Innovation Lab is an opportunity to make technology practical, collaborative, and approachable while giving ICCFA members a meaningful role in shaping the industry’s future.
April 14–16, 2027 · Denver, Colorado