We are delighted to announce that the Digital Legacy Conference 2021 will take place on the 5th October 2021. This year’s annual conference will once again feature as part of the European Association of Palliative Care’s World Congress.  The theme of the Digital Legacy Conference 2021 is ‘PalliCovid & Exploring New Dimensions’.  

The world we knew has changed. COVID-19 has unleashed chaos and the new normal is yet to be defined. The importance that communication technologies have had on our lives and the ways in which people think about death, say their goodbyes and remember their loved ones is changing.

Despite the chaos, moving and memorable moments have taken place. Compassionate, person- centred care by professionals, final goodbyes being said through mobile phones and care home residents being reunited with their loved ones following months of social distancing measures. Palliative care, healthcare and social care professionals have developed new, online communication skills, innovations have launched and new ways of working adopted.

The Digital Legacy Conference 2021 will examine how COVID-19 has changed and accelerated society’s attitudes around end-of-life planning, death and bereavement. It will review the impact of COVID-19 on Palliative Care (#PalliCovid), whilst ‘exploring new dimensions’ in the online and digital space. An array of international speakers will share their experiences, discuss research, highlight new ways of working and examine areas of best practice. 

Following a series of conferences in London, New York and Berlin, they  will be running this year’s Digital Legacy Conference online. The event will be streamed live from Michael Sobell Hospice (Mount Vernon Hospital, NW Greater London). Live streams from international contributors from across the globe will be delivered as follows:

Programme – 5th October

• 4:00pm: Welcome to the new world, a new world in which we all inhabit – Dr Ros Taylor MBE, Palliative Physician. Former Clinical Director at Hospice UK, Medical Director at Michael Sobell Hospice and Harlington Hospice. Trustee at Nightingale Hammerson Care Home & James Norris, Digital Legacy Association, MyWishes & Michael Sobell Hospice
• 4:20pm: Nothing We Do Online Will Exist After We Die and That’s Ok. – Dr John Troyer, Bath University
• 4:40pm: Life, death… Shouldn’t we talk about it with students? Issues arising from the creation of an online platform for the French medical and school staff – Nicolas El Haïk-Wagner & Caroline Tête, French Society for Palliative Care
• 5:00pm: Netiquette for Dealing with Illness, Death, and Grief: Has COVID-19 impacted the rules? – Dr Carla Softka, Siena College
• 5:20pm: The posthumous privacy paradox: Privacy preferences and behavior regarding digital remains – Tal Morse, Hadassah Academic College & Michael Birnhack Tel Aviv University
• 5:50pm: “They were part of the family” – a look at grieving for a pet online. – Stephanie Owens, Cochrane and Dying Matters
• 6:00pm: Digital Executor®: Unraveling the New Path for Estate Planning – Sharon Hartung, Captain (Ret’d), PEng, TEP, is the founder of Your Digital Undertaker
• 6:20pm: Digital afterlife and the spiritual realm – Maggi Savin-Baden, University of Worcester, UK
• 6:40pm: Why creating a digital shrine for my Dad helped me with my grief. – Sandy Weatherburn, Social Embers
• 7:00pm: Designing for death, evolving DeadSocial into MyWishes – Marcos Sebastian, MyWishes Design Lead
• 7:20pm: Living beyond death; who cares? – Dr Erica Witkamp Professor Care for Family Caregiving, Faculty of Nursing and Research Center Innovations in Care, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Rob Bruntink, Journalist, Owner of Bureau MORBidee, The Netherlands & Judith Rietjens, Associate professor, Dept. of Public Health, Erasmus University Medical Center, The Netherlands Judith Rietjens.
• 7:40pm: Designing for Choice at the End of Life: does COVID-19 Shift our Collective Experience of Death Online? – Dr Stacey Pitsillides, Northumbria University
• 8:00pm: Cryptocurrencies, Cryptoassets, and Inheritance Planning – Pamela Morgan, Empowered Law
• 8:20pm: Palliative Pandemic and its Digital Divides – Professor Mark Taubert, Cardiff University
• 8:40pm: Digital Legacy and the idea of life as a work of art – Steve Fuller, University of Warwick
• 9:00pm: 2040: Death, bereavement and digital legacies – Maneesh Juneja, Digital Health Futurist (Keynote)
• 9:40pm: Closing remarks – Dr Ros Taylor MBE, Palliative Physician. Former Clinical Director at Hospice UK, Medical Director at Michael Sobell Hospice and Harlington Hospice. Trustee at Nightingale Hammerson Care Home & James Norris, Digital Legacy Association, MyWishes & Michael Sobell Hospice

10:00pm: Close

“I tell you: one must still have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: you still have chaos in yourselves.” - Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

The Digital Legacy Conference website can be found at: www.DigitalLegacyConference.com