Lessons for coping with crisis from an expert in disaster recovery
Professor Lucy Easthope

We all know that at some point in life, we will experience pain, uncertainty and loss. Widowhood, redundancy, a life-changing diagnosis, pregnancy loss, or a global pandemic. So how can we weather the storms, and cope with whatever comes next? No one can answer this better than Lucy Easthope, an emergency planner whose job is to support survivors of major disasters. She has been there after countless earthquakes, fires and floods. Time and again she has watched how people rebuild: the work, the pitfalls and the fragile joy. In this plenary session she will distil for us what she has learned about how to carry on during and after terrible times, and what celebrants can learn about how their ceremonies and their support can help.

Lucy Easthope is the UK’s leading authority on recovering from disaster. She was recently interviewed on Desert Island Disks, talking about her work as an emergency planner and sharing her eight disks. She has been advisor on nearly every major disaster of the past two decades, including the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, 9/11, the 7/7 bombings, the Salisbury Poisonings, Grenfell. She most recently advised the Prime Minister’s Office on the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lucy grew up in Liverpool and has a degree in law, a PhD in medicine and a Masters in risk, crisis and disaster management. She is a Professor in Practice of Risk and Hazard at the University of Durham and Fellow in Mass Fatalities and Pandemics at the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath. Her book When The Dust Settles: Stories of Love, Loss and Hope from an Expert in Disaster was released in March 2022 and was a Sunday Times bestseller.

Creating and delivering meaningful funeral ceremonies for and about people with learning disabilities
Joanne John

Join Joanne John for a workshop exploring how we can make our ceremonies more inclusive for people with learning disabilities, a demographic who have historically been excluded from the grieving process. Jo will cover what a learning disability is, how to adopt different communication styles to aid success, what people with learning disabilities say make funerals more accessible to them, and share resources that might help you when taking on these ceremonies. She will also look at how rituals can be used to help people understand what is happening more deeply.

Joanne John is a funeral celebrant who spent the majority of her 38-year NHS career working with individuals with intellectual impairment with a dual diagnosis of mental illness and challenging behaviour. Many individuals had been in long-stay hospitals, and she was struck by their lost stories. As a funeral celebrant, Jo has delivered ceremonies for some of those individuals (both by design and coincidence). She has also created ceremonies which will be easily accessible to others with a learning disability and additional needs. Though Jo has now retired from nursing, she believes she will always be a nurse at heart.

What’s the name of the game? Spreading the word on naming ceremonies
Mair Garland

Do you know your Bumps & Babies from your Baby Sensory, and your Mum Club from your Mummy MOTs? New parents are busy juggling classes, sleepless nights, and building their village, but most won’t have ever heard of a naming ceremony. It could be exactly the celebration they’re looking for, with you as the perfect person to lead it. In this session, we’ll explore how to tap into the baby bubble to spark curiosity and find new clients. From baby-friendly venues to class instructors who can champion you, we’ll explore fun and practical ways to spread the word and grow your bookings.

Mair Garland (she/her) is a celebrant for all three ceremony types and has been a member of the celebrant network since 2020, where she started with naming ceremonies. Originally from south Wales, Mair specialises in bilingual ceremonies in both Welsh and French. She lives in south-east London with her husband, young son and cheeky miniature schnauzer.

Sound and vision in wedding ceremonies – orchestrating the bigger picture
Rachael Meyer

As a music lover, Rachael specialises in incorporating cinematic and music-filled experiences into her wedding and funeral ceremonies and works regularly with live musicians, microphones, speakers and Spotify playlists.This session will look at positioning ceremonies from the viewpoint of some of the people we work with regularly as celebrants – musicians, photographers and videographers. As well as giving you the confidence to own the space and try new things, you will take away some ideas for guest experiences, and photos and video content, and you can expect some top tips on getting some epic marketing material from the professionals you work with.

Rachael Meyer has been a humanist celebrant for seven years. Training in weddings just before Covid, she went on to become Yorkshire’s busiest wedding celebrant, before adding funerals into the mix. She moved to Newcastle upon Tyne in 2024 and became CNSC in the North East in 2025.

With a solid background in PR, communications and corporate event management, Rachael’s career has never stopped evolving. In 2006, she trained and qualified as a photographer and videographer. She and her photographer husband set up their own photography, PR, video and event management agency. Using her writing, interviewing and event skills, Rachael decided to become a celebrant in her 40s. Over the last 15 years, Rachael has photographed many weddings and has worked at hundreds of live events.

She’s been a full time celebrant for five years, and incorporates all of her experience into her ceremonies. And when time allows, she still gets behind the camera for commercial clients, and makes short documentary videos.

What can we learn from history about supporting the bereaved and honouring the dead?
Dr Molly Conisbee

This workshop will explore two main themes: what we can learn from the past about our attitudes towards dying and death, and how these in turn impact on our present ways of disposing of and remembering the dead. Celebrants today navigate a complex terrain of historical memory and contemporary expectation, set against a backdrop of consumer cultures that also impact on the end of life and how it is honoured and celebrated. Drawing on her experience as both historian and bereavement counsellor, Molly will explore the interaction between these issues.

Molly Conisbee is a visiting research fellow at the Centre for Death and Society (CDAS) at the University of Bath, and a bereavement counsellor.

Her book, No Ordinary Deaths: A People’s History of Mortality, was published in May 2025, by Profile/Wellcome.

Improv for celebrants – because life isn’t scripted!
Jon Trevor

We all know that at some point in life, we will experience pain, uncertainty and loss. Widowhood, redundancy, a life-changing diagnosis, pregnancy loss, or a global pandemic. So how can we weather the storms, and cope with whatever comes next? No one can answer this better than Lucy Easthope, an emergency planner whose job is to support survivors of major disasters. She has been there after countless earthquakes, fires and floods. Time and again she has watched how people rebuild: the work, the pitfalls and the fragile joy. In this plenary session she will distil for us what she has learned about how to carry on during and after terrible times, and what celebrants can learn about how their ceremonies and their support can help.

Jon Trevor has been a Humanists UK celebrant since 2009. He has also been heavily involved in the Birmingham improv scene for roughly the same length of time. Jon is the founder/director of Birmingham Improv, which runs classes, workshops, drop-ins, jams, and shows. He performs with two improv groups, Box of Frogs, and with Breakfast of Champions. He is the founder/director of the Birmingham Improv Festival. He also takes the skillset of improvisation into the corporate world under the banner of Improv Initiative. All that, and funerals, weddings, and namings too!

Navigating outdoor wedding ceremonies with confidence
Amy Lee

Weddings in public spaces can be fun and magical. But they also come with a unique set of challenges. In this practical and engaging workshop, wedding celebrant Amy Lee will guide you through how to plan and deliver ceremonies in spaces that are open to the public with confidence and care. From interruptions to permissions and logistics, we’ll explore how to prepare for the unexpected and support couples in making informed decisions. We will discuss how to have open, reassuring conversations with couples about risks; creative ways to adapt ceremonies in real time; damage limitation strategies for when things don’t go to plan; and navigating permissions and public space etiquette. You’ll leave feeling prepared, not panicked!

Amy Lee has been a celebrant since 2021 and had now delivered over 60 ceremonies including weddings, funerals, and naming ceremonies. She is also the Celebrant Network Coordinator for the South West. Alongside her celebrant work, Amy juggles a part-time role at the University of Bristol and life with two primary school age children!

Full of meaning, full of fun: creating authentic and unforgettable wedding ceremonies
Louise Gather

How can we elevate ceremonies beyond the ‘standard’? Where is the line between a meaningful ritual and a gimmick? And where can we find fresh ideas to draw from? Through workshops, scenarios, discussions, and real-life examples, we’ll build the inspiration and confidence to add fun, interactive, and memorable touches to ceremonies (while maintaining that all-important meaning and authenticity!)

Louise Gather has been creating kickass wedding ceremonies since 2020. Her specialty is crafting celebrations bursting with energy, laughter, and unexpected moments that encourage couples to be their best selves and to truly celebrate their love, whatever that looks like. When she isn’t weddinging, she is probably crocheting, singing in two barbershop choruses, or out mushroom-bothering.

Diving deeper into adoption ceremonies
Felicity Harvest and Sally Hay

Adoption ceremonies should be a good match with humanist ceremonies – welcome ceremonies for young people who have come togeether with their forever parents. Or so you would think. Our celebrants do very few adoption ceremonies, and this session with Felicity Harvest ans Sally Hay explores why. We will cover issues related to adoption and the legal processes that families have to go through, the thorny issue of post adoption contact, and the pitfalls and highlights of crafting an adoption ceremony.

Felicity Harvest is a celebrant in all three ceremony types, and is herself adopted.

Sally Hay is a funeral and naming ceremony celebrant whose background in family law means she has seen the often gruelling processes leading up to adoption, as well as their emotional impact.

Protecting and projecting your voice in your role as celebrant
Po Midwinter

In this session we will practice how to quickly and effectively warm up the voice to enable clear speaking from the first words of the ceremony, and to use this warm up as a mindful moment to prepare yourself for the event ahead of you. We will experiment with projection techniques so that a large event with no microphone (or a suddenly broken microphone!) is no challenge. We will discuss vocal care tips for long term health and quick fixes for voices that don’t want to come out to play.

Po Midwinter started out in a touring theatre company after finding that most of the acting jobs were in London, where she had no desire to move to. After six years of being poor and a punishing run at Edinburgh Fringe she gave in to a normal job and became a drama teacher. When her daughter was born, she switched to elocution tutoring online as she could do this while the baby was napping. After ten years of this she became quite bored and became a celebrant! She now refers to herself in the third person at all times and loves her weddings and funerals. For the last 20 months she has been CNSC for the East of England.

Creating inclusive ceremonies
Matt Ashby-Cooper

What do we mean by diversity? What about inclusion? What does an inclusive ceremony look like? Join Matt (a newly accredited wedding celebrant and award-winning DEI expert) and find out just what inclusion could look like in your ceremonies. Explore how your website and marketing help people from all walks of life see themselves working with you, and how you can show up when needed as an inclusive celebrant.

Matt Ashby-Cooper recently trained with the amazing Blake Hutchings and Jo Bromley as a wedding celebrant and is keen to ‘marry’ his new skills with his extensive DEI expertise. With over 25 years in HR, Matt’s focus over the last decade on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), saw him launch Ashby-Cooper Leadership back in 2022, his own business focussed on helping organisations create inclusive workspaces. Through leadership initiatives, temperature checks, and DEI-focused engagement surveys, he helps businesses create spaces where everyone gets the opportunity to thrive.

Breathing, balls and being; an experiential workshop on emotional resilience and self-care
Mandy Hagan

As celebrants, we all give a lot of ourselves to the people we work with, offering steadiness, support, and care through joyful and challenging times. Mostly this is fulfilling and rewarding; but our role can also be stressful and draining. It is essential to look after ourselves and replenish our energy. Together, we will look at signs of stress and helpful ways of coping, find ways to reframe the negatives and to incorporate mindfulness into everyday life. Come with an open mind and have fun!

Mandy Hagan is a funeral celebrant and celebrant trainer but in previous roles she has been a social worker, bereavement service coordinator, lecturer, and counsellor. She has always had a special interest in emotional intelligence, resilience and self-care. Also, she likes bright colours and doesn’t take herself too seriously… so she likes to have fun and laugh as much as she can!

Resources to run courses
Joanna Mutlow

In this session, Jo will explain how she runs courses in Sheffield through the University of the Third Age (U3A) to build her local presence but also to fill two shortfalls: first, people having things ready for their own death or incapacity, and, second, people having ashes hanging about at home and not knowing what to do with them. These course resources are available to all celebrants but Jo will talk about some of the motivations, logistics, and returns for running ‘Tying Up Your Loose Ends’ and ‘What to do with the Ashes?’ The resources are flexible and adaptable to your context and priorities.

Joanna Mutlow initially trained to be a celebrant in 2020 in order to do occasional hospital funerals as part of her pastoral care (chaplain) role. Her celebrant practice has a strong pastoral element and a commitment to co-production (writing scripts collaboratively). She is keen to share the knowledge she has gained through her pastoral and celebrant roles to enable people to make informed choices in challenging times. Jo lives in Sheffield and semi-retired, she volunteers as a pastoral carer in her community and delivers funeral ceremonies two or three times a month.

The campaign for humanist marriages:
what’s happening and how you can help
Karen Wright

Take action! This workshop will cover the latest in our policy campaigns on humanist marriages and equip you with the knowledge and resources on how you can get involved and make a difference.

Karen Wright is Director of Human Rights and Advocacy at Humanists UK and has worked at Humanists UK since 2018. She leads the campaign on humanist marriages, and also acts as secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group.

Andrew Copson

Andrew Copson is Chief Executive of Humanists UK, responsible for day-to-day management of the organisation as a whole, and management of the staff team. He has been Chief Executive of Humanists UK since 2010, prior to which he worked across educational and public affairs roles within the charity.

He is an expert on humanism who has written widely on the subject, and is regularly invited to appear on TV and radio news programmes. As well as these roles, Andrew is a trustee of the Religious Education Council and former President of Humanists International – the umbrella body bringing the global humanist movement together to pursue human rights at an international level.