Together For Cinema begins 2023 with much optimism. There is the desire and the commitment from those involved to continue the good cause delivery to our community and there is undoubtedly the support from many companies and individuals in our industry to help us do this. We are grateful and humbled by this comprehensive support…, thank you.
We had a great year in 2022 and, as an industry pulling together, we installed 8 incredible new cinema rooms into deserving locations across the country. 2023 hold much more of the same with 6 installations already planned. Beyond this we are hoping to finalise the operational structure of Together For Cinema and it looks likes we will be a Community Interest Company (CIC) very soon.
Beyond this there is lots to do, including such things as:-
- organising our celebratory Million Pound Ball for May 2024
- further developing our plans to deliver newly released film content to the children’s hospices (a meeting with Disney in March should help move this forward)
- to continue recycling AV product to good causes
- to further develop the Cisco support for the children’s hospices
January is incredibly busy and we will set up the new CIC and new bank account. We have a new accountant who really seems on board with us so they will help pull all this together. We need to process all of our 2023 sponsors and make sure they all get their 2023 sponsor pack.
We have 3 new openings that have been held over from 2022 (in Stoke, Gosforth and Sittingbourne), 2 further site visits for new installations in 2023, the ISE show and lots more. The Christmas holiday already seems a long time ago!
The £1,000,000 mark of good cause installations is not far away and it’s exciting to start estimating which installation, and which installer, will take us there. It will be what it will be but I can’t help but wonder…
Ian Morrish
Founder, Together For Cinema
For 2023 we currently have 6 installations as confirmed as they could be at this early stage, and these are outlined below. As with all plans we have to be subject to change so the list below may change, however, we will target a total of 7 more installations for 2023. The current installation plan is as follows:-
- Acorns Children’s Hospice, Walsall. Installer: Jooced.
- Butterwick Children’s Hospice, Stockton-on-Tees. Installer: Your Digital Lifestyle Ltd.
- Cherry Trees, East Clandon. Installer: Nethaus Ltd.
- Hope House Children's Hospices, Oswestry. Installer: Exclusive Solutions.
- Resources for Autism, London. Installer: Smart Living Solutions.
- The Space Centre, Preston. Installer: TBC, though believe we have someone.
- Marie Curie Adult Hospice, Newcastle. Installer: TBC, can anyone help?
…and for the moment, this will be the basis of our delivery for 2023.
Of course for 7 installations we need 7 lots of AV equipment to make these rooms become a reality. Please email me at ian@ad-con.uk or call me on 07768 398007 if you would like to help in any way.
As we begin 2023, 2024 seems a long way away, however, with the network of children’s hospice and others deserving venues that we have, I can confidently say that we will have another busy year. I would expect another 6 or 7 cinema room installations and I think we are already in touch with most of these.
Please see below for a full status update:-
- Children’s Hospice, Liverpool. New building taken on, still defining best room use and structure.
- Derian House Children’s Hospice, Chorley. New building completion expected mid 2024. Installation expected end of year..
- Ellenor Hospice for Children and Adults , Gravesend. Refurbishments planned installation delayed until 2024.
- Richard House Children’s Hospice, London. Refurbishments planned installation delayed until 2024.
- Robin House Children’s Hospice, Ballach. Refurbishments planned installation delayed until 2024/25.
- A N Other Venue. To Be Confirmed.
- A N Other Venue. To Be Confirmed.
As you’ll no doubt appreciate it’s impossible for us to know of all the deserving venues in the UK that could use our help. With this in mind, if you know of anywhere that you think is deserving of our help, please do let me know, or even better, please introduce me to a relevant contact. We are open to consider anywhere but I would ask that the venue is a recognised care centre and is secure, both financially and practically.
Firstly I would like to thank again all our sponsors who kindly helped make Together For Cinema happen in 2022. Almost all of you have reconfirmed for 2023 and your continued sponsorship is much needed, and of course hugely appreciated.
Some sponsors have chosen to increase their level for 2023 and in contrast, some have not been able to continue. We are of course grateful to those that have chosen to increase their level, but we are also still very grateful to those that were able to support in ‘the early years’ and we hope that one day you might be able to consider again being a sponsor of Together For Cinema. Having been in touch with you all I am fully understanding of your reasons and thank you for your continued good wishes and support.
Complementing our growth I am delighted to announce that we already have 12 new sponsors for 2023, and am expecting a few more to confirm later this month. If what I believe is ‘out there’ is confirmed, we are on track to hit our 2023 forecasted budget figure by the end of January. We still need a few more sponsors so please help if you can. Once our revenue is secured, we can simply focus on ‘making it happen’ and making the difference in our community that we all want to see.
We operate on a very tight budget with limited expenses and ‘do the best we can’ to make a difference and promote this difference to our industry and beyond. But there is so much more that we can do…, and much of this ‘more that we can do’ is made possible by the increased budget, and any extra revenue, that we’re able to generate.
With this in mind, can you help? Can you possibly consider becoming a first-time sponsor of Together For Cinema? Sponsorship packages start from £500/year and please do what you can to help.
Listed below are a few other updates that might be of interest:-
Gasoline Media Deliver Beyond Expectation and Become Our Latest Operational Partner
Only a few weeks into our agreement and I want to thank Sarah James and Teresa Latter at Gasoline Media for their commitment to help with Together For Cinema’s Marketing and PR. Be it writing editorial, working with our industry media, social media posts, branding ideas, or anything else, Gasoline have really stepped up to help and we are very grateful. To acknowledge this I invited Gasoline Media to become one of our official Operational Partners and I’m delighted to say that they were thrilled to accept.
Meeting With Disney and Medicinema
This is an exciting development and will hopefully help define how we can deliver newly released children’s films to the 54 children’s hospices in the UK. A long way to go, but a meeting with Disney and Medicinema is a pretty good starting point.
Our 2022 Management Accounts
These are available on request and I believe give a really positive insight into how we have managed the revenue generated from our sponsors. There has been a small overspend this year but I’m hopeful we can claw this back from our 2023 budget plan.
The Together For Cinema Video Series
These have been received very positively and I thank all those that have viewed the videos and have kindly given positive feedback. The series will continue and video 5 of 14 will be posted shortly.
A hugely productive last 8 weeks focusing on closing things out for 2022, and prepping for 2023 and the next stage of Together For Cinema’s development.
As mentioned in my introduction January is a really busy month for Together For Cinema with lots to do to get us to the stage where we can take a breath and draw up our 2023 plan in more detail. There is much in plan and much to do, but a moment to pause and reflect is always needed! As much as I love the ISE show it’s always good to get this behind me and regroup after a busy start to the year!
As I start our 22nd month of being a funded operation I’m delighted to report that support for Together For Cinema seems to gather more and more momentum as the months go by. Be it operational assistance, media support, show support, product donations, installer help, sponsorship support, fundraising ideas etc…, there appears to be a real desire from our industry to further our delivery to the community and to further establish Together For Cinema as an acknowledged, well recognised and well supported AV industry enterprise.
There are hundreds of key individuals in our industry that help make it happen and recently I set up a WhatsApp group for all our sponsors and partners. This was received so well and will become an excellent communication channel for our main Together For Cinema stakeholders – all of whom we are extremely grateful to.
Lots more is happening and feel free to touch base at any time if you have any queries.
Bye for now and hope to see you in Barcelona.
©2024 All Rights Reserved - Website by Presto