I think that, particularly in the towns, there's usually a church with a memorial outside or a cenotaph quite near to allow those who wish to go outside and stand by the cenotaph. Often it's involved in some Christian ceremony. Those who don't want to do that can stay in the office for five minutes and have something a little bit more than just the last post, or reveille, or an announcement.
In my own company, which is a big insurance company in Toronto, they played the last post over the speaker system for the whole company, over 1,000 people, and a minute's silence. Then a piper played the Lament and then they had the reveille. It was very moving and everybody stopped work and just thought for a few minutes. I know that in Israel, when they have the Holocaust commemoration, the whole of Israel comes to a grinding halt and for two minutes no traffic moves, nothing. They all respect that two minutes of thought for what happened in the past. My experience with a big insurance company was the two minutes of silence, even in the building, meant a lot. A lot of people were involved, nobody moved around, and those who wished went across the road to St. Paul's church, a fine old church, and had the cenotaph service as well.
It depends upon the leadership. If the leadership wants to bond people together in a company to make it a great company, the president, the CEO, and the board of directors have to say, “Gentlemen and ladies, we have to do something about this. We have to do something about this to remember all these sacrifices that people made, including people who were in own company”, and instigate an orchestrated, well-planned small event. Use a bit of initiative and imagination. If anybody wants a bit of helping doing it, I'll certainly tell them. If Margaret Thatcher were in charge of things here, she would mandate it. You only have to see the ceremony in London, or the Queen present, to see what a magnificent event it is, and indeed in Ottawa as well.
It can be done, but in companies, in businesses, and in schools things have to be done better to teach people about this event and why we hold it for two special minutes.