Monday 26th April - Guest Writer Heather

An update with the mind challenge is that there is some 'healthy' competition building up in the office between the teams and the money is starting to role in for our two charities - Brainwaves NI and the NI Alzheimer's Society

Again we have exciting news here at Legal-Island, another birth! Congratulations to Michelle our marketing officer who had a baby boy last week.

We would like to give a special thanks to a couple of people for their contributions last week:

Bill Magowen & Danny O'Neill for sprucing up our office with their high level beam cleaning

All our fantastic speakers and the Belfast Telegraph with their help with making the Annual HR conference a memorable day for many.

Now to the busy task of the week ahead................

Events

This week we have 3 events taking place in the Republic of Ireland including UK/Irish Employment Laws: A Comparison, Fixed Term Contracts and Varying Term Contracts so I will be very busy running these in the Radisson Dublin Airport

Networking

• Barry is meeting Gerry Rooney from Polaris HR on Thursday evening. On Friday he’s in Dublin all day meeting David Fagan from Eversheds, John Hogan from Leman Solicitors, Noel Dillon from Sophix.ie as well as Sandra Masterton Powers from Byrne Wallace Solicitors.
• Scott is meeting with Ricky O’Rawe from Parity
• Jayne and Kerry will be attending a coaching seminar called Shaping the Future of Leadership with Dr Corina Grace in Belfast
• Ainsley will be meeting Andrew McCullough from Yellow Tom Advertising and Alan Braithwaite from Abacus
• Donna will be attending her second day the Invest NI course - Managing Your Team

That's a busy week of networking for us which should lead to lots of new partnerships.

Training Centre

Last but certainly not least we have Hallmark and the Centre for Competitiveness in our training centre this week.

Monday 19 April - Guest Writer Julie

Exciting news on the Legal Island front this week as Pamela our Marketing Officer has just gave birth to a baby girl. Congratulations to Pamela!



It's all go on the Island this week as our Training Centre is booked to full capacity, Legal Island are hosting a Breakfast Memory Seminar called ' Whatchamacallit at Work '. The Centre of Competitiveness enjoyed our facilities so much last week that they have booked it from Wednesday right through until Friday.


EVENTS:


We are hosting two ' Big ' events this week. The first being ' Employment Law in the Education Sector ', the second of our new Education Events this year which takes place at Corr's Corner Hotel. Legal Island are hosting the NI HR conference for the 2nd year running on Thursday at the Ramada Hotel in Belfast, the Premier HR conference in Northern Ireland. Not to be missed!!

NETWORKING:

Ainsley
Attending the Breakfast Seminar in the morning, then networking in Belfast with a PR agency about our Memory Competition.

Peter
On Tuesday Evening, Peter is Networking with a Boat Club in relation to the Memory Competition.

Scott
Is chairing the Antrim/Ballymena HR Network on Tuesday. The guest speaker is Janet Coleman from Healthworks. On Wednesday evening, Scott will be meeting speakers from the NI HR conference at a pre-conference dinner hosted by Carson McDowell, legal sponsors of the event.

Barry
On Tuesday, Barry is meeting Performance Coach Hannah Carney. On Wednesday he's off to Carson-McDowell in the evening for a networking buffet after attending the Education conference at Corr's Corner. On Thursday he's attending the NI HR conference, followed by a game of tennis in the evening with Junior Nelson our Finance Consultant. Apparently he's not expecting much profit but plenty of loss from the match!!
Friday wraps up Barrys networking, having lunch with Gillian Esquivel and Jayne Finlay, the other director of Legal Island.

Myself, Kerry, Ainsley, Scott, Heather and Peter with be in attendance at the Annual HR Conference on Thursday at the Ramada Hotel.
See you there!

Onwards!

Guest Writer- Donna

You may look at the images on either side and think wow! where are those training rooms? Look no further they are available for hire at

Legal Island. Island House training rooms will be buzzing this week with activity as they are being used by Schrader, Simon Smith Coaching and Centre for Competitiveness - guys you will be made vey welcome at the Island.

TRICKS OF THE MIND......

In case you were not aware Derren Brown is appearing in the Belfast Wasterfront on Monday night and not to miss out on an opportunity Barry, Jayne and Kerry will be attending and sharing the experience with Noel Brady, Linus Murray and John Brolley. Barry is a big fan of Derren having read his book Tricks of the Mind and learnt from it how to memorise a pack of cards. We look forward to hearing about their experience.

CHALLENGE YOUR MIND.......

Working 9-5 is just not enough to stimulate us at the Island, we like to challenge ourselves too with a bit of healthy competition. Over the next few weeks we will be taking part in the Mind Gym Challenge - not for the fainthearted! All staff will be teamed up and we will be competing on the Wii to increase our brain power. For every kg of brain power achieved Legal Island will donate £1 to our chosen charities Brainwave and NI Alzheimers society. Let the games begin!!

MIND READING.......THE MEDIA

Ainsley will be attending an FSB event tomorrow at the Park Inn in Belfast entitled Meeting the Media - an excellent opportunity to be introduced to the editors and senior news people in broadcasting and press. On Thursday he will be meeting Allan and Brian Nelson from Forth Data to discuss data cleansing and synergising our master databases.

LEGAL MINDS......

Scott is meeting Stephen Mearns from John Ross & Son solicitors on Tuesday - Stephen represented the claimant in a case where the claimant received the biggest race discrimination award in Northern Ireland. On Thursday Scott will be in Dublin to meet some customers and speakers including Lisa Quish from Depaul Ireland and Maria Hegarty from Equality Strategies Ltd.

Enjoy the brilliant weather over the next few days!

Tuesday 6 April Guest Writer Vanessa

Here at the Island we are back from our Easter hols full of chocolate and positive vibes! With the number of people still enjoying their break it is quite a quiet week networking and event wise.

Barry is meeting Gill Fairley from Jenkinson Consulting for lunch on Wednesday and is heading down to Dublin on Thursday to meet George Alexander of Alexander HR and then John Hogan of Leman Solicitors and Clive Byrne of NAPD.

On Thursday Scott will be meeting Louise McNichol from the Committee on the Administration of Justice - Louise specialises in Human Rights Laws.

Back in the office our main focus is preparation for our Northern Ireland HR Conference on 22 April.