Guest Writer Barry

We've a busy week this week after our rip roaring success on Thursday last with the Northern Ireland HR conference.

Our CEO, has internal meetings today and tomorrow. On Thursday he's attending a YENI black tie dinner at the Titanic. On Friday he's paddling up the River Bann from Lough Neagh to Castlerock on the North Coast for three days to raise money for charity.

Our MD Jayne is interviewing all day on Tuesday for Barry's PA. On Wednesday she's attending Corrs Corner for Connect with Respect BITC Champions Training. On Thursday she's attending Maghaberry Prison with Common Purpose course from 9 - 1.30pm followed by a ST meeting in the afternoon. On Friday Jayne's volunteering at St Brigid's Primary School on their reading for children programme.

Event Manager NI, Kerry, will be hosting the final two days of our eight day Mediation course on Thursday and Friday.  Good luck to our seven delegates who face their final assessment on Friday!  Kerry will also be hosting the monthly Mediation Club at the Law Centre in Belfast on Thursday afternoon.  We have Karen Erwin, President of the MII, coming along to speak on the ethical issues of mediation.

Our Event Manager for ROI Heather is meeting Kate from Brainwaves on Wednesday to give her a £220 cheque from our Rate2Donate scheme
On Thursday afternoon I will be at Ballycraigy Primary helping with the hockey.

Scott our conference executive for NI has a Senior Team Meeting on Thursday, followed by a ‘First Thursday’ mediation meeting at the Law Centre (NI) in Belfast. Scott may be addressing a meeting of the Institute of Directors’ Economic Strategy Committee on Friday in relation to the employment law changes in GB and whether these should be applied in Northern Ireland. Scott also hopes to meet John Conaghan of Carecall.

Meantime, we're all getting busy for some really good events in May and June including Northern Ireland's Data Protection Conference.

Guest Writer - Julie

Farewell Phyllis:

There is a dark cloud hanging over the office today as we bid farewell to Phyllis on her retirement. Phyllis started with Legal Island alongside myself and a few others in May 2008. She will be missed by all especially Barry with whom she worked alongside. Phyllis enjoy your retirement and your forthcoming holiday, you deserve it. Your presence will be missed by all at Legal Island!

This week sees our BIG Annual HR conference taking place on Thursday the 26th of April at the Ramada Hotel, Shaws Bridge in Belfast. This course is hugely popular with HR professionals in Northern Ireland and is filling up fast. To book your place please go to http://www.legal-island.com/events/all-events/. Please note that you can save £20 if you book and pay online.


Staff movements for this week are as follows:


Barry our CEO has meetings all day today and tomorrow. On Wednesday he’s giving a talk at the Rainey School on business issues. On Thursday he’s at a seminar with sales guru Andrew Bounds. On Friday he’s on leave.

Jayne our Managing Director is travelling to London on Tuesday for the IOD Celtic Dinner 2012 and furthermore will be attending the IOD Annual Convention on Wednesday. On Friday morning she is volunteering at St Brigids Primary School.

Scott Alexander hopes to work from home on Tuesday. On Wednesday he will be giving a presentation on age discrimination case law at the HSENI conference in the Tullyglass hotel in Ballymena. On Thursday he will be chairing the NI HR Conference at the Ramada Hotel in Belfast. On Friday he will be attending the Carecall Charity Gala Ball for Malawi at the Storment Hotel in Belfast.

Kerry is leading the team on Thursday at the NI HR Conference 2012. The hosters for the event are Jayne, Peter Fitzpatrick and myself.

Ainsley is seeing Gareth Dunlop from Fathom tomorrow afternoon. On Wednesday he is travelling to Dublin to host 'Dealing with Teacher Underperformance' which takes place on Thursday the 26th April.

Allison will be attending the Annual Health and Safety conference at the Tullglass House Hotel in Ballymena this coming Wednesday.

Donna is attending Ballycraigy Primary School on Thursday for Hockey training.

Heather is overseeing the following events in the South this Thursday the 26th April. Internal Mediation (2day Course), Dealing with Teacher Underperformance and Dealing and Negotiating with Employee Representatives.

Training Centre - Our 8 day Mediation course is running from Wednesday until Friday.

Guest Writer - Debbie Wilson

Easter is over, back to work...............

 

Welcome back from all at Legal Island! We hope you had a relaxing Easter break.  I had a wonderful time in Co. Monaghan with my family. As you can see from my picture the Easter Bunny still paid a visit to my son Joshua.

It’s a full house today on the Island, we’re all back from our time off and stuffed full of chocolate and ready to start our laps of the car park to work it all off again.

Ready....Get Set.....Go.......

Staff movements this week:

Barry our CEO has a busy week. Today he's meeting Michele Groves of Charis Consultancy. On Wednesday he's meeting Gerry Rooney from Baker Tilly about mediation courses. On Thursday he's in Dublin meeting Grainne O'Boyle about their mediation work before going to a seminar in Blanchardstown on the same subject. On Friday he's facilitating the last of the workshops on behalf of Common Purpose.

Scott has several meetings in Belfast on Wednesday, including Barry Fitzpatrick, Joe Blair of MBS and Angela Schettino & Emer Hinphey of thinkpeople. Scott hopes to work from home on Tuesday and Friday.

Donna is taking part in BITC Connect with Respect...........Diversity Training in our Training Centre today and Hallmark Solutions are using the facilities tomorrow.

Peter is working with our exhibitors for the HR Conference next Thursday. If any of our readers would like to exhibit, please contact peter@legal-island.com by lunchtime on Wednesday.  

Ainsley is meeting Gareth Dunlop on Friday afternoon to discuss our web strategy, apart from that he is in the office all week attending internal meetings.

Heather is taking part in BITC Connect with Respect...........Diversity Training.  On Wednesday she is meeting Jennie from MacMillan Cancer Support to present a cheque of £220 from our Rate2Donate scheme.  On Thursday she will be going to Ballycraigy Primary School to assist with their hockey training.

Kerry will be preparing for next weeks HR conference this week plus she will be attending an Invest NI workshop in the Clandeboye Lodge on Wednesday.  Kerry has the first three days of the NI 8 day mediation course taking place from Wednesday – Friday.

Jayne is taking part at BITC Connect with Respect ...............Diversity Training today at L-I Training Centre. On Wednesday she is at the Ramada Shawsbridge for Health, Wealth and Wellbeing Conference run by Employers For Childcare Charitable Group. On Friday she is at her final Common Purpose Learning Group in Belfast.

Guest Writer - Peter Gilpin

It’s back to the Island this week after a long Easter weekend, spent relaxing and indulging in chocolate treats left by the Easter Bunny.

We were lucky to have a visit from the Easter Chicken at Legal-Island last week, who left some yummy looking chocolate eggs which some of you may be lucky to sample if you are meeting with any members of the team this week. I wouldn’t recommend the use of our omelette recipe with these eggs!

It’s a busy week for us all as we continue our preparation for the upcoming events in our spring calendar.

Here are the following movements for this week:

Barry
Barry our CEO is in the office for much of this short week. On Wednesday he is meeting Andy Cuthbert from Omnisoft with the Peters from the marketing department. That same evening he's chairing The Four Hour Work Week business club here at Island House's training suite? On Thursday he's facilitating a meeting of Common Purposes in Belfast. On Friday he's off to Dublin to do a bit of networking.

Scott
Scott gets a new laptop this week! Watch his blurred fingers as he now types as fast as he thinks instead of having to wait some seconds for screens to appear or to copy and paste. On Friday, Scott will be in Dublin for a number of appointments, including the LRC.

Guest Writer - James

A little taster to get you all in the mood...


And it can help as part of a calorie controlled diet... honest!






As we run up to Easter and some staff taking extended breaks I suspect this week could be quite a busy one.  The good news is, following Sharon's 'retirement' last week, that we welcome Jenny into the fold this week - boy we move quick!  Good luck Jenny on your first day looking after the Public Health Agency in our training centre.


Networking this week:

Barry
Our CEO is busy this week attending a number of innovation seminars at Queen's University. He's also attending the First Thursday Mediation Club on Thursday of this week. The theme for this month's meeting is church mediation apparently. In between times Barry is working hard to close off a number of events for later this year including our big mediation symposium in September.


Jayne
Meeting Jenni Brown from FuturesNI at Hilton Templepatrick on Wednesday morning.
 
Ainsley
Meeting Gareth Dunlop from Fathom at 3pm today, and working with Paula Milligan on the sales strategy tomorrow.
 
 
Beyond that there are numerous internal meetings planned and Jayne and Ainsley will be interviewing for a marketing intern on Wednesday afternoon.
 
Happy Easter Everyone!