As Together for Cinema hits a significant milestone, we look back on successful partnerships and installations, and forward to a celebration of these achievements.
When Together for Cinema Founder, Ian Morrish, ‘stumbled’, as he puts it, into the AV industry in the early 1990s, little did he know that his journey would lead him to creating a good cause company that has now achieved an incredible £1 million worth of cinema room installations in children’s hospices and other equally important places that support poorly children and their families.
The idea for Together for Cinema first came about in March of 2009, when Ian was watching The Secret Millionaire television programme. It featured a holiday home for children with short lives and their families in Blackpool. “I was so moved by the story I wanted to do more than simply donate to the cause,” he recalls. “So, I contacted the holiday home organisers to see if there was anything the AV industry at large could do to help.”
Around 14 months later, Ian and his team had created a cinema room in one of the log cabins donated by The Secret Millionaire. Following this initial success, and having heard how much the cinema room was appreciated, he contacted Together for Short Lives, a large UK charity with 54 children’s hospices under its umbrella. After several meetings and conversations, Together for Cinema was born and set a target to complete 25 cinema room installations by the end of 2020. In September 2020, Together for Cinema achieved this goal with a combined installation value amounting to well over half a million pounds.
Since then, with the help of Operational Partners, Installations Partners, Product Partners and Media Partners, Together for Cinema has now achieved the incredible £1 million milestone.
Respectively, these partners offer everything from insurance services, accounting assistance, website development, warehousing, networking and public relations, expert installation services, product donations and the all-important publicity that keeps Together for Cinema in the hearts and minds of the industry.
Although Together for Cinema’s journey kicked off in 2009, it wasn’t until March 2021 that Ian committed to running the company full time. It was then that the audio visual and associated industries started officially allocating grants to help fund the operation. This has been essential to securing both the future and development of Together for Cinema.
There are now over 70 companies allocating grant funding who, between them, contribute to hitting the budgetary goals needed to shore up the annual operational expenditure. Without them, Together for Cinema and its activities simply would not be able to continue. “Of course, more grants mean more revenue, and that means that we can give more back to the community,” Ian notes. “There are also a lot of fundraising activities from our intrepid AV colleagues, which make a huge difference and mean we can put some ‘icing on the cake’ of both existing and future projects. With so much support being shown, we now have a dedicated section on our website for Fundraising activity.”
And, following the organisation being granted Community Interest Company status this Spring, Melanie Malcolm from Bespoke Home Cinemas, Cadaema Consulting Services’ David Parrett, and Chris Pinder from HDANYWHERE and OneAV have joined the board of directors to help Ian in his quest to continue the great work Together For Cinema does.
So far, Together for Cinema has now delivered 41 cinema room installations. If these were normal ‘paid for’ installations, they would have cost just over £1 million. “It’s an impressive figure and one that we’re very proud of,” Ian continues. “But by far the most satisfying part is the positive difference this coming together of the AV industry has made to the lives of so many children, their families, carers, and anyone associated with the management of the organisations in what are often very challenging circumstances.”
The latest installations include a cinema room at Cherry Trees in Surrey, which provides care for children with disabilities, installed by Nethaus, Resources for Autism in London, which was completed at the end of July by Smart Living Solutions. In September, Jooced installed a new cinema room at Acorns Children’s Hospice in Walsall, We Are Beams in Hextable, Kent was installed by Ideaworks, and Majik House’s completed a cinema room at The Space Centre in Preston, Lancashire all of which took Together for Cinema’s installation total to over £1 million.
To mark this milestone, a £1million Celebration Dinner is planned for May, 2024, which will be attended by 300 Together for Cinema partners and associates that have helped make the installations happen.
“We couldn’t have done any of this without the incredible support we’ve had from so many people and organisations,” Ian concludes. “Hosting a dinner to celebrate both the installations and the people who, completely free of charge, have worked tirelessly and donated the products that are making such a difference to so many people, seems only fitting.”
www.togetherforcinema.co.uk