Guest Writer - Peter Fitzpatrick

He's done it! Heartfelt congrats to our Chief Executive, Barry Phillips and his other half Anna, who got married in Moscow on Saturday. I'm sure you'll agree that Anna looked stunning, with Barry scrubbing up quite well himself. Everyone on this 'island is delighted for them both.

There's no rest for the wicked while Barry enjoys the start of married life, and we have a busy week here:

Our Managing Difficult Conversations two day course is flying at the moment, so much so that we've only got one place remaining. Contact Vanessa now to make that place yours!

Scott hopes to work from home three days this week – Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. On Thursday he meets Ciaran Trainor from the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland and Paul Fieldhouse of Hyperion Growth.

Heather has returned from her trip to London with loads of information about potential venues for our GB Annual Review of Employment Law conferences in October this year - the early bird catches the worm, and all that.

Our other Conference Manager, Kerry Murphy, is also on the hunt for new venues this week, although she's a little closer to home with appointments to visit the Tullyglass and Galgorm in Ballymena on Tuesday.

Our Training Centre has been hired by the Health and Social Care Trust this week. We've got a great offer on Training Centre bookings at the moment - book the Training Centre for a Monday or Friday and you'll save 33% on room hire. To find out more, email meetings@legal-island.com or contact Donna Kirkpatrick on 028 9446 3888.

Guest Writer - Kerry Murphy

Let it Snow!!! 

It may be a little late for Christmas but according to colleagues there has been plenty of snow in different parts of the province this weekend. James even had enough to make this magnificent snowman on Saturday night (see picture). There's not much left here in Antrim but just enough so that Allison could test run her pretty new snow boots today.




Staff movements this week:

Barry, our CEO, is on a shorter week this week. He has meetings all day today and much of tomorrow. On Wednesday he has a meeting in the City of London with a large law firm before flying off abroad for a few days.


Scott is in Belfast on Wednesday, meeting Kevin McVeigh of Elliott Duffy Garrett and Lorraine Toolan of the EEF. After working from home during the day, Scott returns to Belfast on Thursday for an evening of fun and firewater at the Pinsent Mason’s annual Burns Night celebrations at QUB. Hangover permitting, he hopes to be working from home on Friday. A man’s a man for a’ that, efter a’!


Jayne is in the office all week with internal meetings, except for Thursday morning when she is at the Legal-Island and Employers for Childcare joint Business Breakfast at The Mac.


Donna will be out at a Health and Wellbeing conference on Wednesday which is in Lisburn and has been arranged by BITC and the Public Health Agency.


Heather has internal meetings today and tomorrow and will be going to London Wednesday – Friday for a Meet in London event to find new venues and suppliers.


The marketing department is looking forward to a full day of training on Wednesday with Paula (Gibson) Milligan who is Director and Sales Consultant at PM Sales Solutions. She’ll be offering her advice on sales techniques to make 2013 a great year.


Allison has internal meetings for most of this week. On Thursday she will be seeing Ian Ferguson from the Construction Employers Federation at the Employers for Childcare and Legal-Island Business Breakfast which is taking place at the MAC.


James and Jayne will be meeting with Mark Maguire from Invest NI on Wednesday.


Kerry is in the office all week. I will host Vital Nutrition’s January Kickstart breakfast session tomorrow in the Training Centre from 9.30 – 10.30am.


Have a truly amazing day on Saturday Barry and Anna!!!

The Week Ahead

Guest Writer, Barry Phillips, CEO

Are we in the top ten of company blogs yet here at Legal-Island? Possibly not.But if there's an award for a company blog we'd certainly like to be considered for it. We like awards at Legal-Island and we're currently contemplating entering a few this year. Meantime...

We've a busy week ahead this week as the Legal-Island machinery swings fully into gear. I have meetings all day today and an Engagement seminar tomorrow with BITC. I'm seeing Stewart Miller from Northgate on Wednesday followed by a nice relaxing massage from the Carecall visitor. Thereafter it's meetings right through until Friday.

 Scott is meeting with David Braziel of Team Solutionz today. On Tuesday Scott has a meeting with Sam Davidson of the Henderson Group and will be co-chairing the HR network at SAM Mouldings in Antrim. Wednesday sees Scott choose aromatherapy as his stress-busting option from Carecall and Thursday sees Scott attend a breakfast session on the Bribery Act, courtesy of Carson McDowell, followed by his annual appraisal meeting in the afternoon. Scott hopes to work from home on Friday.

 Jayne and Peter F are meeting our web consultant, Gareth Dunlop, at Fathom’s offices in Belfast on Friday afternoon. This meeting should provide another step towards the development of our brand new website!

 Kerry will be meeting with Niamh Shiells from the Association for Coaching for a site visit at the MET, Titanic on Thursday.  Legal-Island will be sponsoring the Annual Association for Coaching Conference and will marshal the event. 

 In the training centre this week we have Schrader on Monday, Health and Social Care on Wednesday and on Thursday and Friday we have Social Services Training.

Best of all the Legal-Island hens have started laying again! We're taking this as a sign that the worst of the Winter is now over and that none of us will be stuck for a break time snack for a good while longer.

Guest Writer- Kerri McOscar

                

                                                           

Happy New Year!

It's the beginning of 2013 & already we are all excited here at Legal-Island for our upcoming events. All staff are back to work and after the Christmas festivities and excessive eating it's now time to get back to working hard with much less play!

Staff movements this week:

All staff are attending two meetings this week. On Tuesday we will have an onwards and upwards meeting with any updates for 2013. On Wednesday all staff will attend our Training week Review with presentations from Barry, Heather and Myself.

Barry: Our CEO, Barry Phillips, has a busy enough week ahead. Highlights include meetings with Junior Nelson on Wednesday and Philip Bain of Shredbank on Friday. He's also spending a good deal of this week researching DISC Profiling with a view to introducing it into the company soon.

Scott: Scott is meeting David Braziel of Team Solutionz Limited today to discuss Conference Executive Software. He will be attending training sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday and is on holiday on Thursday and Friday.

Jayne: Our Managing Director Jayne has in house meetings on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday and is out at Employers for Childcare on Thursday. On Friday Jayne and Barry are meeting Philip Bain of Shredbank.

All other staff members will be working hard alongside in house meetings throughout the week.

Legal-Island Training Centre: Schrader will be using the Training Centre on Tuesday the 8th January.

Have a lovely week!

Kerri