Merry Christmas Blog! Guest writer: Peter Gilpin

Having been part of the Legal-Island team for a almost a month now (I know, time flies when your...working really hard!) I have the privilege of writing the final blog of the year and reporting on a very civilized Christmas lunch.

Last week saw our team take the short journey down the road to the Hilton Hotel in Templepatrick for the annual Christmas lunch. This was an afternoon of tasty food and great craic, accompanied by a very prestigious awards ceremony. On behalf of us all at Legal-Island, I would like to congratulate John on his award-winning smile.....and red face that accompanied it. The Secret Santa’s amongst us proved not so secret with a table full of detectives finding the source of the exciting gifts shared amongst the group; all of which I’m sure will come in very useful over the festive period. All-in-all a great afternoon, with some familiar faces attending to share the festivities!

This week, the final movements of the year are as follows:

Barry

Our CEO has a quiet enough week this week for a change. He's in the office every day until Friday with the exception of tomorrow when he's meeting Gillian Esquivel for breakfast, attending a prize giving at Antrim Grammar school at lunchtime and then meeting a hoster in the afternoon for a careers discussion. On Tuesday evening he's firing over to Derry/Londonderry to help an old friend with his marketing strategy for his new Derry law firm

We are all looking forward to a well deserved feast of turkey and mince pies, to prepare ourselves for a busy year ahead.

Guest writer: Debbie

The end of a busy year is approaching fast and i can not wait for Christmas.  We had a busy week last week with Strategy Days, Training Week and volunteering our services to paint the premises of Home Start in Antrim.  Oh don’t we look the part in this picture!

Now that we have set the brushes down from last week, we are ready to pick them right back up again as we are off to paint the town red on our staff Christmas lunch at the Hilton Hotel on Thursday.  Party Time!!

Staff movements for this week are as follows:

Barry

Today our CEO is recovering from both a cold and a weekend in London. He was on a two day coaching course which he managed to do apparently by having Lemsip applied intravenously throughout the weekend.

For the rest of this week he has mainly internal meetings to do although on Wednesday morning he’s attending a BITC breakfast meeting about healthy living in Northern Ireland. On Friday he’s in Dublin all day meeting a few mediators.

Scott

Scott has a busy week in his last before his Christmas break. He will be chairing the final HR Network meeting of the year on 13 December. Guest Speakers will be Dr Alistair Black from Futures NI and Shirley Blair from A&L Goodbody.

On Wednesday, Scott will be in Dublin to meet the HR Symposium speakers at Arthur Cox’s offices. He also has meetings with MOP and McCann FitzGerald.

Thursday is Christmas party lunch and Scott will be meeting Tom Evans from DEL on 16^th December.

Donna

Donna is attending a meeting at Antrim Grammar tomorrow with BITC, Parkhall, Translink and Tidy NI with the intention of arranging a “litter prick” up at the railway crossing in January.

On Thursday she will be at our Christmas lunch delivering presents from our Secret Santa and will be hosting the much anticipate Legal Island Staff Awards ceremony.

She also has the HR Forum members using the Training Centre tomorrow.

Onwards until the countdown to Christmas……..

Guest Writer: John

Now that our customers have received their essential training for 2011 through our Annual Review of Employment Law events, its our turn at Legal-Island as we take part in our twice yearly Training Week. This gives us a chance to reflect on the past year, plan for the year ahead and get involved in teamwork at the same time.

Monday will see us all receiving the wisdom of Mark McAllister from the Labour Relations Agency as he speaks on 'Dignity at Work', of which some members of staff may claim to have more than others! This is followed by a review of the year and the Corporate Strategy for 2012 in the afternoon.

On Tuesday, we are leaving the office and donning our ragged trousers to become philanthropists for the day, painting the premises of Home Start in Antrim. This is where we get to add a splash of colour to our work and find out who amongst us is the Van Gogh (creative, crazy and lacking an ear?)

We are back in the Legal Island Training Centre on Wednesday, with a packed agenda including

Networking Update, Disc Profiling,Team work - Communication skills, Staff Charter and Customer Charter, Policies – Update on policies for 2012 and Certain software update!

There is no training planned for Thursday as Kerry has an event taking place in the Training Centre- the second day of the Mediation course, which gives the rest of us a chance to catch up on work.

We end the week with a visit from the Ulster Cancer Foundation, who will be following up on our health audits from earlier in the year to check if we have improved our health levels and if we need to go on the naughty or nice list. Jayne will then be giving a presentation on Meeting Faciltiation Skills in the afternoon before we head home for the weekend.

Guest writer: James

Tomorrow will finish our best ever Annual Review season! 

These flagship events are always successful but this year has seen a superb effort by everyone to make sure we continue to improve year-on-year.  It's hard to see how we can top it again next year but I'm sure we will.

Last week's event in the Ramada Hotel, Shawsbridge was the biggest event we have ever held in Northern Ireland.  Even with the increased numbers to cater for the feedback has been exceptional.

To pick out just one of the comments from a very satisfied delegate:

"The Legal Island Annual Review is the Upper Class of employment law conferences...from the moment you arrive you are greeted with a smile and ushered to your departure area by professional staff and then once you take your seat you are treated to an array of N Ireland's leading employment law practitioners. If you only go to one employment law event a year this has to be it......left with all the information I require to help me through the next year of HR trials and tribulations"

For our last Annual Review at the Stillorgan Park Hotel, Dublin you will need to be quick to secure one of the last remaining places:

http://www.legal-island.ie/events/all-events/324/annual-review-of-employment-law-2011-only-8-places-left/

Additionally this week we have one or two smaller events as we prepare for our biannual training week involving all staff next week.

The first day of the Mediation 2 day course is on Thursday:

http://www.legal-island.com/events/all-events/329/internal-mediation-resolving-workplace-disputes-2-day-course-only-1-place-left/

At the time of writing there is only one place left!

And on Friday morning we are hosting a free event for local businesses on the topic of Employee Engagement.  If you would like to come along please contact kerry@legal-island.com

This week Barry will be attending the Annual Review and then staying on for some networking on Wednesday.  He is hosting the first Mediation Club meeting on Thursday evening and then presenting along with Sue Robinson (Firmus Energy) at the Employee Engagement event on Friday morning.  A meeting with Richard O'Rawe on Friday afternoon will complete another busy week.

Scott is chairing a powwownow teleconference with Stephen Mearns and Maxine Orr tomorrow. They will be answering questions from delegates that attended the annual review of developments conference last week. Otherwise, he hopes to work from home most of the week.

On Thursday, Jayne will be meeting Caroline Duffy from Poised for Success; Ainsley will be at the BITC Awards Seminar and Vanessa will be volunteering at Restore.  On Friday morning Ainsley will attend the Invest NI High Tech Skills seminar.

Apologies to anyone I've left out but I think I've typed enough with my sprained wrist.

20th November 2011 Guest writer Phyllis McMahon

Time is just passing us by.  We have already completed 3 very successful Annual Reveiws with only 2 more to go.  The next is on Wednesday at the Ramada Hotel and we have just a handful of places left.   The final Annual Review of Employment Law conference of 2011 is at the Stillorgan Park Hotel, Dublin on Tuesday 29 November.  If you haven't booked yet, you're in danger of missing out!


So what is everyone doing this week?


Our CEO, Barry Phillips, has a busy week ahead. Today he's in meetings pretty much all day. Tomorrow morning he's conducting mock interviews at Antrim Grammar school with his PA, Phyllis. On Wednesday he's attending our Annual Conference for part of the day whilst meeting Terry McErlane, Frank Cassidy and then visiting Common Purpose. On Thursday/Friday he's back in the office finishing the week with dinner along with Kerry and six other notables who qualified as mediators earlier this year.

Scott is chairing the last of our NI Annual Reviews of Employment Law conference 2011 at the Ramada, Shaw’s Bridge, Belfast on Wednesday. Scott is visiting Scotland on Friday and working from home on Tuesday and Thursday.

Jayne has her usual meetings today, meeting Ray McCabe from Rutledge Recruitment at 11.30am tomorrow. She also has a Certain Events demonnstration on Tuesday afternoon. Hosting at the Ramada on Wednesday. On Friday Jayne is doing her volunteering  - Time to Read at St Brigid's Primary School.

Ainsley has his usual meetings today. He is hosting at the Annual Review on Wednesday and on Thursday he and Peter are in London attending an EBA Web Marketing conference.

Kerry is heading up the largest Northern Ireland Annual Review in our 11 year history on Wednesday at the Ramada, Shaw's Bridge with a team of 7 staff. 

Kerry will also be attending the Mediators dinner on Friday evening with Barry and the 6 other delegates who attended the 8 day course in September.

Debbie is out volunteering in Antrim Primary School this morning, through the Young Enterprise Scheme.

So as you can see a very busy week for everyone.

14th November: Guest writer Arnold Majcher

Welcome on board. This week we are extremely busy because 2^nd of south Annual Reviews will take place in Radisson Airport Hotel. There are still places available for a Final Annual Review event at Stillorgan Park Hotel but you have to be quick before it will be sold out.

For north there are still places available for Ramada Annual Review which will take place on 23^rd November.

Barry

Our CEO Barry Phillips has another big week ahead. He's in the office all day today. Tomorrow he's visiting the local grammar school to help some Oxbridge candidates with interview skills. On Wednesday he has a finance meeting and is welcoming visitor, Olivia May to the company. On Thursday he's working on strategy stuff with the MD, Jayne before heading to Dublin for meetings all day on Friday.

Jayne

Jayne have her usual internal meetings on Monday, on Tuesday email service meeting followed by Gold Star Customer Service Workshop with CforC. Wednesday, finance meeting. Thursday Strategy meeting with Barry. Thursday night attending WIB awards with Heather and on Friday she is volunteering with St Columbs Ballymena Time to Read

Ainsley

Ainsley is meeting Michael from Centre for Competitiveness tomorrow with Jayne and Vanessa, followed by the Radisson for Annual Review on Wednesday.

Heather

She will be at Annual Review on Wednesday and she has her last day volunteering in Ballycraigy primary on Friday

Peter

Peter will be working with our website providers Tibus this week to make a few updates and subtle amends. On Wednesday he is helping out with the hosting of the Annual Review of Employment Law conference at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Dublin Airport

Onwards!

Onwards!

7th November: Guest writer Jacqui McCaughan

Never mind the excitment of the EMAs and the hustle and bustle around Belfast over the weekend!! That's the norm here on the Island, especially in November.

The first of this year's Annual Review of Employment Law took place on Thursday and was as usual, a great success, a big well done to Heather and the team of Hosters on the day.

Sweets provided by heavenly-temptations.co.uk

The delegates on the day were offered a selection of sweets instead of the usual chocolate fountain, which is so passé!!!

This was just one of the extras available and it went down a treat (pardon the pun).

Tomorrow will see the first of the NI Annual reviews taking place at La Mon House 

with Kerry heading the team. With 121 delegates, 17 speakers and 11 exhibitors there should be a great buzz around on the day!

and there are still a few places available, so if you don't want to miss out on what promises to be a fun and informative day, click on the link above.

With the Annual Reviews in full swing, there isn't much time for anything else, however here is a round-up of what is going on, on the island this week:

Our CEO Barry is actually in the office pretty much all week which is unusual for him. Today he has internal meetings all day. On Tuesday he's attending the morning part of the Annual Review Conference at La Mon before heading back to the office. On Wednesday evening he's attending the Annual Dinner of ASCL at the Hilton Hotel Templepatrick and catching part of their conference the following day. On Friday he's back in the office before enjoying a much needed break over the weekend.

Jayne and Ainsley will be carrying out a 2nd round of marketing interviews.

Donna has Business in the Community coming in on Wednesday to do a biodiversity audit.

Scott will be chairing the first of the NI annual reviews of employment law on 8^th November. On Thursday he will be attending the tribunal users’ group and an in camera dinner with the Minister of Finance and Personnel, organised via the NI Chamber of Commerce.

Debbie will be out doing her Volunteering in Antrim Primary School this morning through the Young Enterprise scheme.

Heather will be preping for the next Annual Review in the Radisson on the 16th.

And I said there wasn't much else happening on the island.....................

31st October - Happy Halloween!! Guest Writer Jayne Finlay

Happy Halloween Folks! Yes the spooks, goblins and witches are out to play today - let's hope they leave us all in peace as we continue another busy week at Station Road.

It's the first week of November and we all know what that means... the Annual Review of Employment Laws are upon us! First up we have Heather running the show on Thursday at the Red Cow, with her hard working team of professionals with here Heather is sure to host a fantastic day. Good luck Heather - show them how it's done!

Elsewhere on the Island...

Our CEO, Barry Phillips, is in all day today and out networking in Belfast Tuesday and in Dublin Wednesday. On Thursday he's attending the first of our Annual Review of Employment Conferences at the Red Cow Dublin. On Friday he's in Malahide at the MII Mediation conference until Saturday evening.

Peter will be assisting with the hosting of Thursday’s sold out Annual Review of Employment Law conference at the Red Cow. Remember that if you haven’t booked your place at either of the remaining two events (Dublin Airport on 16th November or Stillorgan Park Hotel on 29th November), there are only a limited number of places remaining – book quickly to avoid disappointment!

Scott is meeting Frances Hill, NI Agent for the Bank of England, on Tuesday and will be helping out the team at the first of our Irish Annual Reviews of Employment Law on 3 November.

Jayne will be holding the fort back at the office this week, working on staff charters, customer charters and on Wednesday will head into Belfast to meet up with Clarendon Executive.

Enjoy the rest of Halloween guys and here's hoping the ghosts don't get you!

Guest Writer - Heather

"The Sky is blue, the grass is green,

"Have you got a penny for Halloween,

"If you haven't got a penny, a Ha'penny will do,

"If you haven't got a ha'penny, god bless you".

Well it's Halloween this weekend I hope you all have your costumes sorted, some of the Legal-Island staff appear to be wearing theirs already!

Its a busy week on the island, I am preparing for our first fully booked Annual Review of Employment Law next week in the Red Cow Moran Hotel, there is plenty to get do!

Our CEO, Barry Phillips, fresh from his trip to Killarney last week via Devon, London and Waterford is off on Thursday to London for a seminar and networking on Friday before returning home in time for the Elvis Costello event at the Waterfront. Oliver's army oo oo oo...

Scott will be on his broomstick on Thursday to travel down to Belfast to meet Emer Hinphey of Thinkpeople and other appointments he has yet to arrange.

Guest Writer: Vanessa

It’s the calm before the storm for the Conference Teams here on the Island. They’ve finished a successful run of Conference both North and South and are preparing for the big ones – our Annual Review of Employment Conferences. The first is taking place on 3 November at
the Red Cow Moran Hotel in Dublin and there are still a very few places left ttp://bit.ly/ps2EHU

For the rest of us it will be the usual round of meetings and networking:

Barry our CEO is living out of a suitcase this week. He's in Devon seeing his Mum today and tomorrow before heading back to London to chair a conference in Olympia. Then he's off to Killarney for the NAPD education conference which lasts until Friday.

Jayne has her usual internal meetings today and tomorrow and is then heading to London on Wednesday, hosting at the London Annual Review of Employment Law on Thursday (to book go to http://bit.ly/pfRuDm ). Returning on Thursday evening for a meeting in Belfast on Friday morning and then working from home preparing for a strategy day next week.

Ainsley will be in all week apart from Tuesday pm when he has a meeting with Paula
Milligan from PM Sales Solutions.

Scott is attending a presentation by John Philpott, Chief Economist CIPD, this Wednesday, entitled “Rethinking the Way We Work”. He also has a meeting with Adam Brett of McGrigors solicitors later in the week.

Heather is continuing with her volunteering with YENI in Ballycraigy Primary School on Friday morning.

Guest Writer - Peter

'Early Birds' caught our worms!

Over the last few weeks, we’ve had hundreds of ‘Early Birds’ approaching our ‘Island and securing their places at the biggest and best conference events of the year…the Annual Review of Employment Law 2011 both North and South.

Our NI conference manager, Kerry, has secured a prize of 2 nights bed, breakfast and dinner for anyone booking an Annual Review place at the La Mon Hotel & Country Club on 8^th November. Go on, you know you’d love to win that one…

Meanwhile, back on the ranch (or the ‘Island), we’ve a packed schedule as usual.

Our CEO, Barry Phillips, is chairing the Data Protection conference on Wednesday in Dublin, and on Thursday he's speaking at the Business in the Community "Innovate to Engage" conference at W5 in Belfast. Apparently it's sold out so he had better be good! He’s off to London on Friday afternoon. Business or pleasure? – knowing him, it’s probably packed full of both!

Scott and Jayne are heading off to Birmingham on Tuesday for our GB Annual Review of Employment Law conference on Wednesday, then travelling to Manchester for the same thing all over again on Thursday. Scott is in the Chair on both occasions.

Allison will be attending the NI Chamber of Commerce Annual Networking Conference at The Ramada Shaw’s Bridge on Tuesday. She’s hoping to take advantage of the great speed networking opportunities on offer.

Kerry is attending the Ramada’s 10th Anniversary dinner on Monday evening. She if off to a Irish News event in Belfast on Tuesday evening where Tony Buzan will take us through his unique Mind Map technique and the latest research on the brain, memory techniques and learning tools. On Wednesday she is hosting the fully booked Mock Industrial Tribunal Workshop at the Hilton Templepatrick and the Agency Workers event at Antrim Civic Centre on Thursday.

Heather and Ainsley will be hosting the Data Protection event, chaired by Barry, on Wednesday. On Friday, Ainsley is meeting Michael O’Neill from the Centre for Competitiveness.

Donna will be speaking in the ‘employees’ section of the “Engage to Innovate” event on Thursday with Barry as the parallel speaker. We’re also exhibiting at this event, with Allison and Vanessa manning the stand and wooing the delegates with free sweeties!

First Complete are booked into our Training Centre from Tuesday – Friday this week, they’ll be well looked after by our Housekeeper, Sharon.

Guest Writer - Ainsley

 "Talk and tea is his specialty, said Giles. Come along inside... We'll see if tea and buns can make the world a better place." The Wind in the Willows

Talk and tea was our specialty on the 'Island last week, as we held a coffee morning to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. Two things were immediately clear when the above sight greeted staff on Friday morning - 1. Lots of people had gone to a great deal of trouble to make something which could generate some cash for a very worthwhile cause and 2. We were going to need a lot of tea to get through this lot!!

Amazingly (or perhaps unsuprisingly, depending on how well you know us), we had a very credible stab at finishing the lot and all that remained was one slice of pavlova, two scones and a handful of 'top hats.' The moans and groans of overeating were replaced some time later with whoops of delight at the final total of £60.00 that was raised for Macmillan! A great effort by everyone and hopefully our tea and buns will go  towards helping make the world a better place, for the people Macmillan supports.


Having taken the weekend to digest all this, we're now fit and raring to go for another week - and it's a busy one!  Barry has already kicked us off this morning, meeting Gary MacFarlane from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and will follow this with his usual meetings today. On Wednesday he's at the InterTradeIreland All-Island Innovation Conference at Queen's University and on Thursday, he's attending a Mediation Council meeting at 4pm. Apart from that he's here all week.

Jayne is also attending the Innovation Conference on Wednesday and Pamela will be joining me at the first day of the conference tomorrow.

Scott will be chairing our Annual Review of Equality Law Update 2011, on Thursday and will then be meeting Adam Brett from McGrigors. He hopes to work from home on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday of this week and is meeting Sarah Bondi, HR Manager at NACCO, in Craigavon on Wednesday.

Kerry will be managing two events at the Hilton Hotel in Belfast on Thursday - the Equality Law Update and our equally popular Essentials of Employment Law event. There are a few places remaining on these if you're quick!

Heather will also be hosting two events this week, with Conducting Workplace Investigations and also Creating Confident Managers taking place on Wednesday at the Radisson Hotel, Dublin Airport.

All we need now is a change in the weather, for the icing on the cake!!

Guest writer - Pamela Park

Wow, what a week on the Island!

Last week was full of big things as we hosted the Mediation Symposium. Our key note speaker flew in from New York, the Northern Ireland Justice Minister gave the opening address and we had a grand total of 27 speakers/facilitators contributing to the event including two Presidents (Law Society and MII).

In Dublin, Heather hosted 4 events across 2 days in the iconic ‘Croker’.

This week is as busy as ever as we prepare for another 3 events in the north. It’s full steam ahead! Flat to the mat! Pedal to the metal! Or whatever you want to call it?

Movements for the week .....

Our CEO and MD, are part way through their Train the Trainer course in Dublin with another two days accounting for Monday and Tuesday of this week. On Monday evening Barry will be taking to the skies again in the Legal-Island hot air balloon which is taking part in the Irish Balloon Championship 2011.

On Wednesday Barry's back in the office meeting publisher Claude Costecalde. On Thursday he's at a seminar in the morning learning how to speed read (a timely course for someone still with 500 pages to read of War and Peace perhaps?). In the afternoon he's at the CIPFA conference at the Europa. On Friday he's free all day; for the moment at least.

Scott is chairing a meeting of the HR Network on Tuesday. The guest speakers will be Colin Maxwell and Mark Reilly from The Belfast Telegraph’s NI Jobfinder. Also in attendance will be John, our Email Service Manager. He's going to spread the good news about our Employment Law Email Service.

On Wednesday, Scott will be facilitating the Discipline & Underperformance workshop with Lorraine Toolan from the EEF. This event has sold out and promises to be a great day of learning.

Scott will be working from home on Thursday and will be attending Legal-Island’s strategy day on Friday. In the evening Scott will be attending a talk at the University of Ulster on the development of international criminal law, specifically in relation to the special court for Sierra Leone experience.

It’s another busy week for Kerry as she prepares to host three events:

• Winning Tenders in Northern Ireland

• Discipline & Underperformance

• Delivering Workplace Investigations

Heather continues her hard work on our volunteering and fundraising activities as she meets David Fitzsimons, Volunteer Now regarding the Investing in Volunteers for Employers (IIVe) UK Standard. She is also meeting Lisa Brockerton from YENI regarding volunteering opportunities for Debbie and herself. On Friday Heather has organised a coffee morning in aid of McMillan. Some of us have volunteered to make buns and cakes for this, will it be the Legal-Island Great Bake Off!

For the rest of us, we’re in all week and will be attending Legal-Island’s strategy day on Friday.

Guest Writer - Donna Kirkpatrick

The tip for the day on my desk calendar says "Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one" and that basically will be the theme for the week here in Legal-Island.

On Wednesday 21st September we will be hosting the first ever Mediation Symposium in Northern Ireland at the La Mon Hotel and Country Club. Kerry Taggart will be in charge of hosting the event and with numbers of 110+ it looks like it will be an event not to be missed. Can you afford not to go?

Barry will be in the office all day on Monday. On Tuesday his first meeting is at 8.30am with Gerry MacFarlane. He will then be picking up one of the
speakers for the Mediation event at the airport, followed by a meeting in Belfast at 1pm and another meeting at 4pm. On Wednesday Barry will be attending the Mediation Symposium and will be at a training event in Dublin on Thursday and Friday with Jayne.

Ainsley will be attending a Customer Relationship Management event in Belfast with Jayne and Barry, followed by a Young IOD event at the Lexus showroom in Boucher Road with Jayne.On Wednesday Ainsley will be meeting Johnny Megarry from Nicholson Bass, followed by Fiona Keenan at the Hilton before meeting Brian Nelson from Forth Data. A new Lexus would certainly help Ainsley get to these meetings in super fast time!

As well as doing the super task of managing the Mediation Symposium on Wednesday, Kerry will still have time to meet with Ciaran Sheehan on Tuesday.

Scott will be chairing a meeting of sponsors and partners on 20th Tuesday to discuss the first draft programme of the NI HR conference 2012, which has been designed by Penna. Before that he may be picking up internationally renowned mediator Ewan Malcolm from the airport. Ewan is a keynote speaker at Legal-Island's Mediation Symposium on 21st September. Scott will be facilitating one of the sessions at the Symposium and hopes to be able to work from home on Thursday and Friday.

Heather will be speeding off to Croke Park this week for 4 of our ROI events - Discipline and Underperformance, Essentials of Employment law, Post Primary Dealing with Underperformance (which has now sold out) and Internal Mediation (Day1).

Jayne is meeting Ciaran Sheehan on Tuesday at 1pm and she will be attending the CRM event with Ainsley followed by the young IOD event at the Lexus showroom. . On Wednesday she will be seeing Fiona Keenan and then will be attending a CO3 mentoring event. On Thursday and Friday she will be attending a Train the Trainer event with Barry - busy girl,that will be 2 Lexus's we will need to order!

In the Island House training centre, we are delighted to be welcome Invest NI.

So if your empty mind needs opened you know the place to come to!

Guest Writer: Kerry. I'll Started so I'll finish........

Well today was the first day of the Legal-Island Monday Morning Quiz.  And wow did we get a shock!  Jayne our MD turned straight into Magnus Magnusson and by 9.31am the colour had drained from most of the staffs faces realising it wasn't going to be quite what we had imagined.  Two thoughts I've had on this is: Thank goodness I'm not competitive and secondly the table has to turn sometime when Ms Finlay takes to the chair!!!!  Oh and can we do a spot quiz with the CEO?  That might be fun....

Our movements for the week are:

It's variety week this week for our CEO Barry Phillips. On Monday he's meeting HR person and around good egg Linzi Conway in the morning and working with company consultant Richard O'Rawe in the afternoon. On Tuesday he's in the office all day likewise Wednesday when he'll be having a brainstorming meeting with a team from Stratagem. On Thursday and Friday he's doing the last two days of his certified mediation course including a video assessment at the end of the week.

Jayne, MD (aka Magnus), has internal meetings on Tuesday.  On Wednesday she is meeting Strategim at 10am has a Finance meeting on Friday.

Scott, Head of Training & Development, has internal planning meetings this week and hopes to work from home for two or three days.

Heather, Conference Manager ROI, has a meeting with Michelle from the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel Dublin on Monday and is in Cork for Essentials and Discipline on Wednesday.  Good luck with the first ROI events of the season and safe journey!!!

I will be completing the last two days of my certified Mediation course on Thursday and Friday and doing the final preparation for next weeks NI Mediation Symposium. 

That's all for this week.  Here's hoping Jayne hasn't heard of the Mastermind sudden death play-off....

Guest writer: James

The big news from last week, which just missed the Legal-Island Monday blog, but made the local and national papers was the launch of the Legal-Island Balloon at Northern Ireland's first Hot Air Balloon Festival in Moira.

Thanks to Barry and his needle and thread there were no fatalities.  It's remarkable the trust some people put in our CEO!  I notice Barry himself stayed steadfastly on terra firma...

This week at the Island: we are underway with our 1st, Season 2, event - Certified Mediation which runs over 6 or 8 days.  Our intrepid CEO is playing the role of delegate and will emerge at the end of the course with even more qualifications to his name.  Kerry too will become our 3rd certified mediator at Legal-Island following the course - we're the people to talk to if you want to know about Mediation!

Before Barry gets stuck into Mediation on Wed, Thur & Fri he's meeting Heather Bell from Queen's University and Raymond McFeeters from the NAHT - something is brewing for sure.  Tomorrow he's meeting former InvestNI client executive Alison Flynn for lunch.

Scott will be attending the open space event at Penna's premises on Wednesday, designed to create options for the NI HR Conference 2012.  After that he will meet with the education consultant John Stevenson.  He's off to the motherland on Friday as he's escorting his eldest daughter back to university in Scotland.

Jayne and Ainsley will be early to bed on Tuesday as they are on the 1st flight out of Belfast to attend a seminar in London.  We're expecting great ideas to flow from this event with Peter Thompson - the self styled 'UK's most prolific information product creator'.  Jayne is back, bright-eyed, on Thursday for a meeting with Centre for Competitiveness regarding a Customer Service Award.  On Friday it's benchmarking with BITC.

I'll sign off with wise words from my choice of Monday morning tune - "what you give is what you get returned".  The only description of karma that makes any sense to me.

This Week from Legal-Island

Head of Training and Development, Scott, will be working from home one day and attending the first NI CIPD meeting of the new season on Thursday. On Friday he has several meetings lined up, including Lucinda McMurrin from the NI Federation of Housing Associations; Nicola Shaw from BDO; Nichola Cherry from the Untility Regulator, Anne Dargan from Rapid Change Consultancy; and David Graham from Finance Matters (NI) Ltd.

Our CEO, Barry Phillips, has a different week coming up. He's in internal meetings today (Tuesday) and meeting Majella McClosky from CO£ for lunch. For the rest of the week he'll be on the intensive Certified Mediator training we are running in our training suite.

At the weekend, our hot air balloon took part in the Northern Ireland Balloon Festival:

Guest writer : CEO Barry Phillips

We have an unusually quiet work here on the Island. This is perhaps the result of a combination of staff on leave combined with limited networking opportunities over the summer. Jayne our MD is in the office all week with the exception of Thursday when she attends a BITC meeting. Oh and she's off on leave Friday. Lucky her.
Donna the office manager is busy tomorrow looking after new guests for the training centre, Halfords.
Scott our conference executive is working from home for most of the week with the exception of Wednesday when he's meeting our CEO. Talking of which I've a busy week. Today I'm in the office all day. Tomorrow I'm in Belfast meeting Strategem and then Daire Murphy from the Law Centre. In the afternoon I'm meeting Peter O'Reilly from Mediation NI. I like this guy a lot. He's honest, professional and loads of fun. On Thursday I'm in Dublin meeting amongst others Clive Byrne from NAPD and Carol Fawcett from Hayes Solicitors.
You might say this month is all about our mediation events. We have one place left on the 8 day certified mediation course we're running at the end of the month. The mediation conference planned for 21st September is also proving really popular too. Bring it on!

Barry Phillips, CEO

Guest Writer: Debbie Wilson, 15th Aug 2011

The 'Buzz' in the office this morning was just too much to handle.

A secret competition was scheduled by Heather to take place with no information given on what it may be but we were informed to bring as many 50 pence pieces as we wished to donate to charity in order to take part.

And so it began.....we were all lined up overlooking the balcony with the aim to throw our 50 pence pieces down to the ground below, closest to the target wins!!

Ainsley was closest right to the end but Heather snatched the victory in the end. Well done Heather!!

Our movements for this week are:

Our CEO, Barry, is busy today with internal meetings. Tomorrow he's giving evidence in a court case having witnessed an assult in Regents Park a few months back. That'll feel strange being back in court but in the witness box. Later in the week he plans to take a couple of days leave good weather depending. Somehow I have a feeling he may choose to stay at work.

Jayne, MD, is busy all week in the office catching up on her usual meetings.

Our Marketing Manager, Ainsley has a meeting in Belfast tomorrow with Brian Nelson from Forth Data.

Heather, Conference Manager for the South will be in the office all week with a meeting tomorrow about our Annual Review events before she jets off on holiday this weekend. Lucky girl!

Onwards into the busy week ahead........