You’ll see a lot of caskets at a funeral convention. One of the booths I love to visit at every funeral industry convention expo is Astral Industries. They always have a living statue there in various outfits. Convention attendees get their picture taken with the living statue at the Astral booth, and get a framed keepsake to take home. It’s one of the things Astral does that sets them apart from the other casket manufacturers at the expo.
And there were at least nineteen casket manufacturers represented at the 2014 NFDA expo in Nashville! There were caskets for burial and for cremation. There were caskets of steel, wood, willow, wool, recycled wood fiber and cardboard.
Indiana-based Astral Industries is a privately owned and operated manufacturer of quality steel caskets. Over the years since the company’s founding in 1972, Astral has gained a reputation for balancing quality, service, and price.
In this video, Astral’s President David Hazelett talks about how they use living statue Mark Abbati of JoyUnspeakable to help Astral stand out in a sea of caskets. “We take Mark everywhere,” said Hazelett. ” We might have a booth with no caskets, but we’ll have Mark.”
Recorded at the 2014 National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) Convention and Expo in Nashville, Tennessee by Gail Rubin, CT, The Doyenne of Death®, host and author of the award-winning TV show and book, A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die.