National Funeral Exhibition 2022

Two Hand on Heart team members recently spent a weekend at the National Funeral Exhibition in Coventry. Sales Coordinator Lucy Brough and Ellie Dodgson, Product & Service Manager, headed to the event at Stoneleigh Park to promote Hand on Heart’s memorial jewellery range to businesses in the funeral industry. 

The National Funeral Exhibition is always incredibly popular, and this year was no different, with more than 1,200 visitors attending the show. The annual event is a respected global platform for the funeral profession and the largest trade show for the sector in the UK.

Lucy said: “The aim of the show was to gain contacts within the industry as it’s a fantastic networking opportunity. We already work with many funeral directors, and we’d love to work alongside more in the future to offer our jewellery to families looking for memorial fingerprint, ashes and hair keepsakes of their loved ones.

“It was a really interesting exhibition, and we chatted with many funeral directors and businesses within the funeral industry. We had some fantastic feedback about our range of memorial jewellery, they understood and appreciated our ideas to offer families who are grieving loved ones a beautiful and unique way to remember them and keep them close forever.”

Thursday, 9^th June

• Our day started by collecting a hire van which we filled this with furniture for our stand at the Funeral Exhibition.
• Before setting off, we made sure we’d ticked off our ‘to do’ lists at Hand on Heart HQ and finished all our tasks before setting off at lunchtime, arriving at Stoneleigh Park around 4pm.
• Luckily, we were in a good spot next to the door, so unloading was easy. Most people had already set up, so the hustle and bustle was starting to die down – it was the calm before the storm!
• Headed to our accommodation to get ready for a busy day tomorrow

Friday, 10^th June 

• In the morning, we worked remotely to ensure everything was running smoothly back in the studio with Father’s Day just around the corner before heading to the show.
• We arrived at the venue at around 9am and put the finishing touches to the stand. This included filling the jewellery display cabinet and setting out the jewellery and brochures for guests to browse. We took samples from our full range of memorial jewellery, including Memorial Ashes Jewellery, pieces created with fingerprints and our Self-Fill Ashes Keepsakes.
• The show was moderately busy with lots of people interested in our range of memorial jewellery, and we had some really interesting conversations about how they can offer our jewellery and services to their clients.
• Interestingly, we found a lot people were surprised that we are a small business making everything by hand in our Cumbrian studio.
• We had a great day at the show. Later, we returned to our accommodation and caught up on some remote work before a quiet night – ready for another busy day tomorrow.

Saturday, 11^th June

• Arrived at the show around 9am, feeling well-rested and ready for the busiest day of the weekend! 
• We chatted to some of the funeral directors who we already work with, it was lovely to be able to put a face to a name and discuss how they are finding our jewellery and working with us.
• It was great to speak with people about our memorial ashes and fingerprint jewellery and how the creation and print-taking process works. It wasn’t only funeral directors but also celebrants and people working at bereavement charities – we had some really interesting chats and discussed potentially working with them in the future.
• We had a very busy day – we were completely non-stop until 4:30pm when we returned to the accommodation for a much-needed takeaway and relax!

Sunday, 12^th June 

• We arrived early to ensure we could get a good space in the car park, meaning we would be able to pack the stand up easily later that day.
• It was a quieter day in general, so we both took the opportunity to go for a look around the show at the other stands and talk to some other businesses.
• We had some longer chats to some people who spotted us on Saturday but did not have time to get all the information they needed..
• The show finished at 3pm, so we quickly packed up and headed back to Hand on Heart HQ at around 3.45pm. We were back in time to finish our work, ready for Father’s Day!

We hope you enjoyed this diary of our time at the National Funeral Exhibition! We had a fantastic time, and it was great to meet people we already work with and make new contacts too. Please contact Lucy or Ellie at studio@handonheartjewellery.co.uk if you’re interested in working with us and our memorial jewellery offering.