December 2020

A one-of-a-kind concept is developed in partnership with Australia’s Village Cinema, where Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre’s enormous unused exhibition bays, which are normally for housing global business events and cultural exhibitions, are converted into an indoor cinema that can accommodate 174 cars.

Cinema sessions will be held from January 7 to 26 next year and shows are from early morning to the late evening in a completely weatherproof and daytime-friendly venue for audiences, who can enjoy child-friendly matinees.

This program has come about as part of MCEC’s “business relaunch” initiative, under which the venue is exploring new business models, products and revenue streams.

“Like many in the events sector, we have found ourselves not being able to perform our core business for much of this year, and the immediate loss of revenue has proved challenging.

“That’s why we’re exploring new ideas and ways of working, to secure MCEC’s future and to ensure the business can continue to be a driver in the State’s economic recovery,” said Peter King, chief executive of MCEC.

In terms of health and safety measures, the cinema will operate under MCEC’s VenueSafe plan.

The indoor drive-in cinema program is the latest innovation from MCEC, following a recent investment in a new virtual events solution and live-streaming studios and hosting an idea-generation hackathon event called Unconventional Ideas.

Change for Good inflight fundraising programme has been running since 1991, where travellers on Cathay Pacific flights, are encouraged, to donate their spare change in any currency to UNICEF, when returning from their journeys. The money collected, is used to fund UNICEF’s programmes helping deprived women and children in more than 190 countries and territories around the world.

One third of the proceeds from Change for Good are used to support UNICEFS’s School for Asia – an initiative to protect children’s right to education.

The covid-19 pandemic in East Asia and the Pacific region has caused an unprecedented disruption to local education system.  Girls are particularly vulnerable to the impact as many of them have limited access to distance learning during school closures, and they are less likely to return to classrooms once schools reopen.

It is estimated that more than 1.2 million girls could drop out of school due to covid-19. UNICEF and its partners are working to ensure all children especially girls, have access to distance learning including through online, TV, radio and take-home learning-kits.

Proceeds from Change for Good will also support UNICEF’s work to keep children learning amid the pandemic. Meanwhile, UNICEF is implementing campaigns to encourage girls to continue their studies after the pandemic.