{"id":4739,"date":"2022-10-18T12:03:11","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T11:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.erjjiostudios.com\/rankfoundation\/?p=4739"},"modified":"2024-05-09T08:44:46","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T07:44:46","slug":"celebrating-50-years-of-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.erjjiostudios.com\/rankfoundation\/news\/celebrating-50-years-of-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating 50 Years of Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Rank Foundation is grateful to Gareth Hart, Director of Plymouth-based Iridescent Ideas and Rank Network member, who shares his experience of the Rank Foundation’s 50th-anniversary conference in this blog. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What do Family Fortunes, Sweet Caroline, cutting keys and the Carry-On films have in common? Well, they all featured, to some degree, in the wonderful Rank Conference 2022<\/a>. Some 500 people joined the gathering from all over the UK. This year\u2019s theme was celebrating fifty years of giving and was held amidst the guns, swords (Highlander\u2019s iconic blades duelly (ba-dum) noted) and armour of the imposing Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds<\/a>. The \u2018royal\u2019 epithet was apt as we held the conference during the national mourning period for Her Majesty the Queen. RIP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First up was a documentary film about the life of J. Arthur Rank<\/a>, whose bequest led to the formation of the Rank Foundation. The film opened my eyes to previously unknown \u2013 to me at least \u2013 elements of his life story. These included his early forays in to film-making, his trip to Hollywood to fight for British cinema, his involvement in the building of Pinewood Studios (yes, THE\/THAT Pinewood that brought us Harry Potter, Marvel, Star Wars and hundreds of other amazing, iconic films!) and his deep faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Sanderson, Rank CEO, opened the conference, setting the scene with a talk about Rank\u2019s giving and establishing the challenge of tackling the consequences of inequality. This was followed by a panel discussion about the impact of Rank on personal lives. It was great to see several Plymouth representatives in the film and this panel debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next up was a seminar on J. Arthur Rank\u2019s role in the British Film Industry. The role was, well, vast, sprawling and almost monopolistic. J. Arthur’s approach seemed to be: \u2018vertical integration\u2019, i.e., buy every and any business linked to film from the cinemas themselves, through distribution and production right down to projection device manufacturers and the makers of the very seats you sat on in the movie theatres!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sir John Timpson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The evening\u2019s activities and gala dinner were marked with much mirth including a Family Fortunes-Four Seasons-Time to Shine inspired game show (good wig!). Sir John Timpson, he of key-cutting and shoe polish fame<\/a>, gave an interesting talk about \u2018upside down management\u2019 whereby you put the managers in service of the front line and fundamentally, be nice to people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Time to Shiner,\u00a0Chelsea Reynolds performing on stage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The evening was rounded off with a great performance by Time to Shiner, Chelsea Reynolds<\/a>, providing loads of sing-along-able moments and unusual mashups and medleys. Much wine was quaffed, and many people stumbled home well after midnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Caroline Broadhurst.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The next morning saw more entertainment in the form of a rousing rendition of \u2018My Time to Shine\u2019 to the tune of \u2018Sweet Caroline\u2019 \u2013 sung largely in the direction of Caroline Broadhurst, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key note speaker and writer, David Bodanis<\/a> then gave a stimulating talk exploring<\/p>\n\n\n\n