Guest Writer Ainsley

You could hear a pin drop in the office this morning.

Had it not been for the frantic tapping of keyboards or the occasional telephone call, I would have been worried about my hearing! The murmurs that usually accompany Monday mornings in the office had been replaced with a quiet atmosphere of anticipation.

This is because we are now firmly in the middle of our 'silly season' where the events come thick and fast and we build towards our 'Annual Review of Employment Law' events in November. This week marks the busiest week of the year (in terms of number of events) and by 5pm on Friday we will have run 7 great events, catering for the needs of around 150 delegates in 3 jurisdictions.

Jayne is busy preparing for our second 'Annual Review of Employment Law' event in GB, which is taking place tomorrow in the MacDonald Burlington Hotel, in Birmingham. The London gig last week was a great success with some excellent feedback from the delegates - hopefully more of the same to follow this week.

Barry is also in Birmingham tomorrow and will be chairing the Annual Review event. On Wednesday, he's meeting Noel Brady for lunch and on Thursday he's attending an InvestNI breakfast seminar. On Friday he's in Dublin meeting among others, Sarah O'Donnel from Certification Europe.

Heather is busy preparing for our Republic of Ireland events this week which begin with Conducting Workplace Investigations and Annual Update on Payroll Matters on Wednesday, followed by Getting the Best out of Employees: Building Performance on Thursday.

Kerry's organising our three Northern Ireland events this week which begin tomorrow with Delivering Workplace Investigations and TUPE Update 2010 (which has now Sold Out), followed by Section 75: Guiding you through the New Equality Agenda on Thursday.

The TUPE event has proved very successful, particularly with the recent addition of the UK's TUPE 'guru' Professor John McMullen, a Partner in the GB law firm Short Richardson & Forth LLP and Visiting Professor of Law at Durham University. John is regarded as the leading expert in the UK on the Transfer of Undertakings and he also has an international reputation in that field. He is the author of ‘Business Transfers and Employee Rights’, the leading work on transfers of undertakings.

Finally, Scott will be Chairing the TUPE Update seminar tomorrow and on Thursday, he will be attending the Employment Lawyer's Group meeting in Belfast.

Here's ho-pin for another great week!