The Digital Legacy Conference 2021 ‘PalliCovid & Exploring New Dimensions’

The importance of our digital lives is increasing. Personal digital photos and videos are often saved behind password protected devices. The monetary value of purchased media, online only services and digital assets is also increasing. Managing and transferring digital assets and online services upon death is becoming fragmented and complex.

If you have viewed a social media profile of a friend or family member after their death, how did you find the experience? 

It is important that professionals are able to assist patients, families and those they serve with relevant support and advice. The Digital Legacy Association argue that ‘digital assets planning and digital legacy safeguarding should form a holistic approach to advance care planning’

The International Digital Legacy Conference 2021 will take place on the eve of the European Association of Palliative Care World Congress 2021 (EAPC 2021). This year’s Digital Legacy Conference will be streamed live and be featured as part of EAPC 2021. The live stream can be accessed for free with an EAPC ticket. For those who are not attending EAPC 2021, a Digital Legacy Conference ticket can be purchased for £20 when visiting the Digital Legacy Conference website or directly from this ticket link.

Programme

4:00pm: Welcome to the new world, a new world in which we all inhabit – James Norris, Digital Legacy Association, MyWishes & Michael Sobell Hospice

4:20pm: Why 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

5:40pm: “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: Looking ahead –  Maneesh Juneja, Digital Health Futurist (Keynote)

9:40pm: Closing remarks – James Norris, Digital Legacy Association, MyWishes & Michael Sobell Hospice

10:00pm: Close