Monday 25th January 2010 - Guest Writer Heather

Well for all in Legal-Island this week is the calm before the storm, the storm being our conference season! We start next week with a bang - our new programme of Northern Irealnd breakfast seminars the first of which will improve managers coaching skills.

Today Kerry and Arnold head off to Belfast today for their fire marshall training to improve the services we provide in our brand new training centre in Antrim.

Kerry will then also be joining Scott on Wednesday to meet Jacqui Reid from Camden.

Barry is looking to the end of the week for his lunch with Maureen Totton from Robinson Cleaners and James Carey from Clonlee Nursing Home

As for myself, I will be travelling down to Dublin on Thursday for an event in the Burlington Hotel and will work my way back up to the North on Friday, visiting numerous possible venues on the way!

Here's to another great week at Legal-Island.

Monday 18 January 2010 - Guest Writer Julie

It's a busy week ahead with lots of networking taking place in Legal Island.

Barry starts off on Tuesday morning with a meeting in Dublin with Charles Garavan of the Memory Academy in Dublin. On wednesday he meets with Gill Fairley from Jenkinsonconsulting and Keith from Diskshred.co.uk. Peter McBride from Carecall wraps up Barrys networking for the week on Thursday.

Kerry is working hard on the preparation for the new Legal Island breakfast seminars and both her and Pamela will be meeting Liam, the editor at the Antrim Guardian later this week regards the breakfast seminars. Kerry has a meeting with Dave McClements from McClements Business Consultants on Wednesday.

The monthly Antrim HR Forum takes place on Tuesday 19th January hosted by Scott Alexander. Scott has a meeting with 'Business in the Community' about a healthy workplace event & Joe Blair from MBS about a customer care programme on wednesday.
Scott wraps up his networking on thursday meeting John Conaghan of Carecall about their successful pilot to help long term absentees return to work. In the evening he will attend a 'Burns Supper' hosted by McGrigors Solicitors at Belfast Castle.

Onwards!

Guest Writer- Donna

Two words sum up January in Legal Island - not "icy roads" (although very appropriate) or "January Blues" but "Performance Reviews". Yes it is that time of the year again when we are all assessed on our skills, get our backs patted (hopefully) and set new objectives Training has been given to all our managers on how to carry out an effective performance review - the key word will be SMART as will be our 2010 objectives.

Aside from performance reviews some Legal Island folks will be meeting and greeting.

Kerry will be getting back into the swing of things as Conference Manager NI by scouting for new hotels and venues for our upcoming events.

Heather, in her new role as Conference Manager ROI will be meeting Kerry Curran from NITB on Wednesday.

Donna has a meeting with William McDowell of Fire Safety and Compliance NI to assess our fire safety requirements for the office and the new training facilities.

Scott will be meeting with Rosemary Connelly of the same named solicitors and Michael Black from Cleaver Fulton Rankin on Friday.

Barry met with Adrian Gundy from the Centre for Competitiveness and was notably impressed. On Tuesday he will be meeting reps from Laptopforlearnings about an electronic whiteboard for our training centre - which will make it an even better choice of venue for training events.On Thursday he is meeting with George Alexander of Alexander HR for lunch .

Another busy year ahead for 2010, heres hoping our performance reviews will set us up for the months ahead.

Guest Writer this Week - Vanessa Porter

We've started the New Year with all systems blazing - our first events are in February and they are already beginning to book up - once the Marketing Team swing back into action it's going to be a busy start to the year.

We are also welcoming Kerry back from a wonderful Sabbatical travelling in Australia and Japan. She has spent the last six months jumping our of planes and diving with sharks so I'm sure that nothing our first conference season holds will faze her! Attached are some pix of Kerry on her travels to make us all jealous in the cold winter weather.

Barry is out and about this week meeting with Julia Rowan a time Management Consultant and Clive Byrne of the NAPD in Dublin on Wednesday accompanied by Jayne. Closer to home he will be meeting Executive Coach Fiona Keenan, Linus Murray of O'Reilly Stewart and Rory O'Connor of The Creative Hub on Friday - a busy day!

Jayne and Pamela will be in interviewing 2 potential candidates for a Marketing Assistant Maternity Cover Post on Thursday morning.

Happy New Year from all at Legal Island!