Guest Writer this Week Michelle Horrobin

It's all quiet on the western front here at Legal-Island with many of our staff taking their well deserved Christmas leave after such a busy year! Our Annual Review of Employment Law events were sold out and the feedback has been fantastic.

In recent weeks there have been a few exciting changes happening here;

• Heather has been promoted to Conference Manager for Republic of Ireland - many congratulations Heather!


• Arnold has been appointed to Careman and Conference Assistant - welcome Arnold!


• Our Conference Manager for NI - Kerry - is due back home this week from her 6 month sabbatical touring the world and will be back with us in January. We are looking forward to hearing all about your adventures Kerry!

In sad news our former Careman and Conference Assistant - Joe - has left us to pursue new career endeavors and we wish him all the best for his future!

New Year, New Opportunitites

For 2010 we are all set for our new events in the education sector! We have the following dates planned:

• Northern Ireland: Employment Law in the Education Sector (4 Mar)


• Republic of Ireland: Education Law Update (25 Feb)


• Republic of Ireland: Employment Law in the Education Sector (23 Mar)

All that's left to remain is to wish you all a very merry Christmas and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year!

Week 14 - Guest Writer - Pamela Park

Last week the 2010 Programme of Events brochure for Northern Ireland was sent out to almost 2000 contacts.

For next year we've got events on equality, redundancy, employment law, underperformance, employment law in the education sector, industrial tribunals, human resources, workplace investigations to name a few.

With our great Early Bird Offer you can save up to £100 off an event and if you book and pay online you'll save a further 10%: Please visit the Legal-Island website for more information

The training week was a success with many of us enjoying the mindmapping session delivered by Ann Forsythe.

The Week Ahead

It's the Legal-Island Christmas dinner this week and for many, Thursday/Friday will be their last day of work until 4 January!

Barry mainatins the pace as he tries to cram as much networking in as possible. Today he meets John Conagahn from Carecall. Tomorrow he travels to Dublin to meet Liz Ryan, Mason Hayes Curran; Jane Stephenson, Seminars.ie; Krishna De from Bizgrowthnews and Gerry Rooney from Polaris HR. Back in Belfast on Wednesday he plans to meet with Colin Lauder, Parity; Peter McBride, Carecall and Serious PR in Moira.

This week Scott is meeting trainer Joe Blair on Monday about a customer care workshop that we hope to roll out in January. On Tuesday Scott meets coach, John Henry, and SEO news specialists, Direct News. On Wednesday Scott he has a meeting arranged with partners and sponsors about the PR schedule for the Northern Ireland HR Conference on 22 April 2010. Scott finishes for the year on Thursday and will return to work on 4 January. There is no truth in the rumour that he will need the three week holiday to recover from the Legal-Island Christmas party on Friday!

I will join Scott for the meeting on Wednesday and I plan to meet with Desy from mailroom Ltd on Tuesday - hopefully he'll find many ways that can save us time and money.

A busy week ahead!