ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to understand the tensions between the discourse of ''disruptive technology'' as practiced by contemporary start-ups, and the funeral industry's self-identity. It describes the industry convention and trade show as a key space where the industry both rehearses anxiety about its future and presents solutions from influencers and pundits. The chapter shows that the management and self-help discourses about the state of the funeral industry, their authority for diagnosing change and the remedies they propose. It presents an account of the anxieties that are expressed, constructed and soothed at these industry expos. The chapter deals with the technological innovations that are most often identified as the threat to the industry. It explores the funeral expo as a space of problematisation, in which the industry constructs the challenges facing it, tests norms and evaluates new products.
