BI-MONTHLY UPDATE - JULY 2024

INTRODUCTION

Firstly, an apology, I skipped the May edition of our Bi-Monthly Report’. Quite simply, with the £1m Celebration Dinner on May 16th I simply couldn’t find and/or make the time. The good news I have lots of positive things to report on now!
So…, the Together For Cinema £1m Celebration Dinner on May 16th, and how did it go? Quite simply, it surpassed all my expectations, and those of my fellow directors! ‘Best industry event ever’, ’what a great night’, ‘everything was perfect’…, are some of the comments I’ve heard, and it really was a fabulous evening. The balance of great presentation, emotion, fundraising and entertainment seemed to create the perfect result and one that all who attended have raved about. A relief for me and all the other organisers! 
I’m always reluctant to thank people specifically as there are always so many people to thank but on this occasion I’d like to thank three people, namely Melanie Malcolm, Chesney Hawkes and Alun Williams.

  • - Melanie, your help and advice helped make the evening the success it was, and I am grateful to you beyond words. ‘Behind every great man, there is a great woman…’, well, I think you all know what I mean!
  • - Chesney, you’re a legend, but on the night (and at the hotel the following morning) you proved it! So giving of your time, so courteous, so charming and so committed to the cause. I’m excited to work with you again.
  • - Alun, your generosity to match the monies raised in our auction left me speechless. A £20,200 donation on top of the generated funds helped raise £45,000. Thank you.     

You can read more later in this report.
With the dinner now behind us it’s time to get on top of our good cause installations and that is exactly what we’ve done, two of the nine installs are now completed, five more are well on the way, and two more are due to start very soon.
Team TFC is now up to 37 people for the London to Brighton cycle ride on September 15th and exciting things are happening to make this day extra special.
Lots to do…, onwards and upwards!
Ian Morrish
Founder and Managing Director, Together For Cinema CIC

 

INSTALLATION UPDATE 2024

With one installation delayed to next year and a relocation of a previous install dropping in we still have 9 installations to manage this year. As we know this is a big ask, but we’re in good shape and are on target to get them all finished by November.
The installations below are listed in ‘Expected Completion Date’ order, though as we all know sometimes installations don’t run to schedule! The current status is as follows:-

  • - East Anglia Children’s Hospices (EACH), Milton, Cambridgeshire. Installer: thinkingbricks. Completed June 2024. Opening event set for July 3rd. 
  • - Marie Curie Hospice, Newcastle, Tyne & Wear. Installer: Wakefields. Completed June 2024. Opening event set for July 9th. 
  • - Team Jak Foundation, Livingston, Scotland. Installer: Limitless Automation. Completed July 2024. Opening event very soon, but to coincide with Robin House.
  • - Ronald McDonald House Charity, Birmingham. Installer: The Big Picture. Expected completion date: July 2024. Opening event in August.
  • - Once Upon A Smile, Manchester. Installer: Intuitive Homes.  Expected completion date: August 2024. Opening event in August.
  • - Robin House Children’s Hospice, Balloch, Scotland. Installer: Loud and Clear. Expected completion date: August 2024. Opening event very soon, but to coincide with Team Jak.
  • - Dorset Children’s Foundation, Boscombe, Dorset. Installer: Living Home Technology. Expected completion date: August 2024. Opening event in September.
  • - Fresh Futures, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Installer: Audiovation. Site visit done, design being worked on. Expected installation date: October 2024.
  • - Ellenor Hospice for Children, Gravesend, Kent. Installer: iCubed Home Cinema. Building of new wing due for completion Summer 2024. Expected installation date: October 2024.

We are hugely grateful to the installers listed above for kindly taking on these installations and I am sure that they will find their journey to making a difference a rewarding one. As we all know the key to making these installations happen is a good installer and I reckon we have a pretty good bunch listed above. Thanks again to you all…

 

INSTALLATION UPDATE – 2025 AND BEYOND

As we continue our work for 2024 it’s important for us to have as clear a picture as we can of what venues we will be working with next year. The list below is ever changing but I suspect we will work with some of the venues listed below, maybe in 2025, maybe not. We keep in constant touch with these venues and hence the list below is ever changing.  

  • - Claire House Children’s Hospice, Liverpool.  Still defining how best to utilise their new building.
  • - Derian House Children’s Hospice, Chorley, Manchester.  Planning a new wing for young adults, building scheduled for 2025.
  • - Marie Curie Hospice, Bradford, West Yorkshire. We hope this will be our second of 9 for Marie Curie. 
  • - Teens Unite, Broxbourne, Middlesex. New building purchased in Feb 2024, still defining how best to use space. 
  • - Jolly Josh, Rochdale, North of Manchester. Run by a previous parent of child who went to Derian House. 
  • - Richard House Children’s Hospice, Beckton, East London. A new facility so we’re in at the very start. May drop to 2025.
  • - Ronald McDonald House Charity (RMHC), ?????. Not sure which location but we hope this will be our second of 14 for RMHC. 
  • - Shooting Star Children’s Hospices, Hampton, Middlesex. Refurbishment scheduled for late 2024.
  • - Little Havens Children's Hospice, Benfleet, Essex. Awaiting some internal refurbishment, cinema room is part of their plan.
  • - Hope House Children's Hospices, Oswestry, Shropshire. Postponed from 2024, new room needs to be selected.

We are of course in touch with many other venues and have a strong pipeline to call on, however, if you know of anywhere that could benefit from our offering, please do let me know.

 

CHARITABLE GRANTS UPDATE

With a few more additional Charitable Partners committing to the cause we now have 75 different AV related companies helping to fund Together For Cinema, and enabling the good work that we as an industry are delivering to our community.
The list of Charitable Partners reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of our industry and you can see this on our website under the heading of ‘Charitable Partners’.
Please however don’t think we are financially ‘secure’, we need as much help as we can possibly get. With this in mind I urge you to support Together For Cinema and ask you to contact me directly to discuss a possible future partnership.  
With this in mind, the levels at which you can support are as follows:-

  • - Bronze (£500)
  • - Silver (£1,000)
  • - Gold (£2,500)
  • - Platinum (£5,000)

Would you be interested in becoming one of our valued Charitable Partners?  
Further detail can be found on our website under the heading ‘Charitable Partners’ or alternatively please contact Ian Morrish at ian@ad-con.uk to discuss what options are open to you and what difference you can help make.
Together For Cinema, and the difference we make to so many lives, can only continue with your support…

 

FUNDRAISING UPDATE

This year we have had an unusual number of fundraising activities, but are grateful to all concerned and anyone who supports any of the events/activities outlined below:-

  • - The Together For Cinema £1m Celebration Dinner: This took place on May 16th and was a wonderful night. Thanks to the generosity of our 280 guests and to Alun Williams, owner of Future Automation, we managed to raise an incredible £45,000! 2028 will see the £2m Celebration Dinner…
  • - The Together For Cinema London to Brighton Cycle Ride: On Sunday 15th September at least 35 lycra clad cyclists and one runner (think we all know who this is!) will take on the 55 miles from Clapham Common to the Brighton seafront. With a target of £500 per person, and a little sponsorship revenue, I’m hoping for all involved that we can hit the £20,000 mark. First things first though, let’s get to the start and finish the ride! For more detail or to sponsor us please click here.
  • - Richard Caton of Janus Technology Treks and Climbs in Nepal:  In October Richard will travel to Nepal for three weeks to explore the Himalayas and climb the very challenging Kyajo Ri, a challenging, but beautiful 6,000m peak. For more detail or to sponsor Richard please click here.  

Fundraising is important for any not for profit good cause so please try to support anyone who makes the effort to help Together For Cinema. Your support and financial contributions really do make a huge difference!!

 

THE £1M CELEBRATION DINNER

On Thursday May 16th 2024, 280 guests gathered at Epsom Downs Racecourse. There were many of the highly valued Together For Cinema Partners, as well as representation from several of the venues that we’ve installed into. This, along with Chesney Hawkes, Tennessee Twin, great food, great wine, lots of sweeties and a fantastic auction, all combined, with a great deal of emotion, to make it a fantastic evening and one that many of the attendees have said was ‘the best industry party they’ve ever been to’.
They say a picture speaks a thousand words…, you be the judge..., click here to take a look at the photos from the evening.

 

OTHER NEWS

Listed below are a few other updates that might be of interest:-

  • - CEDIA Tech Summits: Great to see CEDIA adding Bristol to their UK Tech Summit tour and I hear all four venues were well attended and provided a successful platform for additional education and engagement. Sadly, due to diary clashes, Together For Cinema wasn’t able to attend the London, Bristol and Edinburgh summits, but we were able to have a presence at Leeds and were grateful again for CEDIA’s willingness to accommodate us. The social event the night before, and the Summit itself, gave us valuable time engaging with many of our Partners and potential new contacts.
  • - The Smiley Charity Film Awards: On Wednesday March 20th my wife and I attended the Smiley Charity Film Awards at The Odeon in Leicester Square. I’m very proud to be one of the appointed judges and I was delighted to see my personal category winner, Menfullness, and their male suicide prevention film, One More Day, actually win the category. A very moving video and an important charity…
  • - 32” Smart TV Appeal: As you may know we are working with the Ronald McDonald House Charity to try to supply five hundred 32” Smart TV’s over the course of the next 4 years. We are already talking to three of the leading TV manufacturers but with so many units required I’d be grateful if anyone else could come forward, or help with an introduction at the right level. It’s very simple, 25 screens donated every year for 4 years from 5 different manufacturers get’s us to where we need to be. The PR value alone is worth the donation!!

 

IN CLOSING

The £1m Dinner Celebration in May was a huge success in so many ways and worth all the effort to make it happen. A huge thank you to all that attended and helped make it happen in any way. I don’t think I, nor any of the directors, could have wished for a more perfect evening. As good as it was, it did however temporarily take us away from what we need to do – installing cinema rooms into good causes. So, with the dinner now behind we are able to get back on track…, and we definitely are…
Thanks to our willing installers, generous product donors and patient good cause venues I’d delighted to say that we are well on track to deliver our planned 8 installations for this year and we’ve even added an extra one. This being a relocation and improvement to a current install. It’ll be a busy second half of the year attending openings, reporting on these, and of course planning for 2025. 
With Together For Cinema becoming more impactful and busier than we had imagined, it’s time for some help and I’m excited to announce that we will have a part-time member of staff joining us in September. General assistance to the directors, focus on our re-purposing programme, but also data management, website management, writing etc…, all jobs that need constant attention and I’m delighted that we’re recruiting some help. More on this nearer the time, but needles to say this is another positive development for Together For Cinema.
Deep breaths taken, and back ‘up and at ‘em’. Lots to do and I’m grateful to the Together For Cinema community for being so supportive. Please spread the word and let’s grow our community so that we can continue making a positive difference.


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