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!!