January and February are always challenging months and this was no different for Together For Cinema. It’s a time when we create the platform for the coming year and for a short time, have no choice, but to take our main focus away from the delivery to the community. This time is of course necessary and has been very productive.
Having had such a successful and productive year in 2022, there is an expectancy to deliver at a similar level, and this we will try to do. One major development that was confirmed at 7am on Monday February 27th is that Together For Cinema is now officially a Community Interest Company (CIC) and we will work with our accountants to complete this transition.
For further details please go to Slide 7.
Our visit to the ISE show at the end of January turned out to be a great week for us. We had arranged with some of our sponsors to present them with their 2023 sponsor plaques at the show. Incredibly we presented almost 40 and have the pictures to prove this! These will be seen in the trade media and over the course of the year on our social media channels (thank you again Gasoline Media for your support!). A big thank you also to CEDIA for allowing me to use their stand as a base for the week.
The show was successful, and I feel it is back on its feet again. However, and after 13 years of working there, I feel I have a right to ‘cautiously comment’. There is still much to do to develop the Residential AV industry impact and offering, and there are also some changes that can be made to improve the attendee experience. I’m optimistic that feedback will be digested and solutions will be found. However, overall a good show and I hope it was successful for all that attended.
So, onwards and upwards, we almost have our funding sorted for 2023, we know what we’re looking to achieve and we know what we’re working to for the next couple of years. Let’s go hit £1m worth of installations!!
Ian Morrish
Founder, Together For Cinema
For 2023 we now have 7 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:-
…and for the moment, this will be the basis of our delivery for 2023.
We are hugely grateful to the installers listed above for kindly taking on these installations and we hope that your journey to make a difference is rewarding one.
With 7 installations we do of course need 7 lots of AV equipment so 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 current status update:-
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 could benefit from our offering, please do let me know.
With many of our 2022 sponsors reconfirming their sponsorship of Together For Cinema for 2023 we have had a positive start to our fundraising campaign. This continued support, coupled with several new sponsors, has put us in a strong position to go forward and continue our delivery to good causes for this year.
We have very nearly generated all the revenue we need to satisfy our forecasted budget plan for this year, but with some increased costs and greater aspirations to deliver, we still need a few more sponsors to commit. The sooner we can secure the funding, the sooner we can focus 100% on the ‘good stuff’ of making a difference to the lives of those with life limiting challenges.
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? …or do you know of any of your trading partners that might be able to 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. Further detail can be found on our website 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…
Community Interest Company (CIC) Status Now Confirmed!!!
After almost 14 years of Together For Cinema working with our industry to deliver cinema rooms to good causes I am delighted to announce that at 7am on Monday February 27th I received our certificate of incorporation from Companies House confirming that Together For Cinema is now officially a Community Interest Company (CIC).
This is a great development for Together For Cinema and means that we are bound by the registrar at Companies House to be not for profit and to continue to deliver good to our community. It also formalises our position in our industry and will hopefully secure Together For Cinema as a recognised channel of good to our community for many years to come.
There are 4 directors of Together For Cinema, and these are as follows:-
More details will be available soon and you may well have already seen the official Press Release.
Please however feel free to call or email me if you have any queries.
Listed below are a few other updates that might be of interest:-
Plans are starting in earnest for our gathering to celebrate Together For Cinema installing £1,000,000 worth of cinema room installations to good causes. We think we have a venue (near the M25 in Surrey), and the provisional date is Thursday May 16th 2024.
We only have 300 tickets so these will be offered in stages to all those that have helped make Together For Cinema happen.
No need to say too much more as the headline says it all! Gasoline’s help is really valuable and we are hugely grateful, as we are to all of our Partners and Sponsors.
A big thank you (I think…??!!) to Matt McLernon of Platinum Sponsor LILIN for inviting me to register with him for the London to Brighton cycle ‘race’ in September. 55 miles at my age and ‘physical density’ will be a challenge, but I will get it done!
More detail will follow and I hope you can all support Matt and maybe get behind me to give me a push!
With a busy Christmas/New Year, prepping for 2023 and a hugely successful ISE show, our video series has been on pause for a few weeks. However, with our new CIC status confirmed and our funding pretty much finalised, I am delighted to let you know that the series will continue very soon!
A good start to 2023, if not a little frustrating with delays in confirming our CIC status, however, we are now in great shape to go forward and focus on our delivery for this year. We have 7 installations to make happen, an industry dinner to arrange to celebrate hitting £1m worth of installations, lots of messaging, lots of sponsors to thank and still a little more funding to find…
As mentioned in my introduction January and February are busy months for Together For Cinema with lots to do to get us to the stage where we can take a breath and focus fully on executing our 2023 plans. As much as I love the ISE show it’s always good to get this behind us and then get back to the office to nurse the ‘ISE hangover’ and then prepare for the months ahead. There is much to do, but a moment to pause and reflect post ISE is always needed!
Looking ahead we are now scheduling our first three installations of the year and these are likely to be completed in April, May and June. Along with this will come some requests for product support and I would ask all approached to be as generous as possible.
To all those that sponsor or partner Together For Cinema we thank you for helping us get to this point in our development. To anyone thinking about getting involved please don’t keep thinking about it, as somebody else once said …, ‘just do it’, I have no doubt you’ll be pleased you did…
I wish you well for 2023 and hope that our industry continues to thrive.
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