Guest writer: John, 18th April 2011

After seeing this photo of the HR Conference last week and how well the tables looked, it is rumoured that the Middletons may be asking Legal-Island to help organise the Royal Wedding! However, with a few staff off on holidays from Thursday, we may have to wait until Harry finds his princess before before we get invited to do the job.

With everyone looking forward to Easter and hoping the good weather lasts, its another active week on the Island.

Now that our CEO, Barry Phillips, I guess we wont be able to use his office and we'll have to get back to looking terribly busy again! Barry's in internal meetings pretty much all of today. He is meeting Julian Simpson of Exped8 for lunch. On Tuesday he's attending the Payroll Matters conference in Belfast albeit very briefly. On Wednesday and Thursday he is in strategy meetings with certain staff members. On Good Friday he is in doing a lot of work while others are off enjoying themselves.

Scott will be chairing a meeting of the Antrim/Ballymena HR Network on Tuesday the 19th April. The meeting will be held at Decora Blinds in Lisburn and the guest speaker will be Emma-Jane Flannery of Arthur Cox solicitors, who will be discussing employment law and social media.

Ainsley will be involved in the strategy meetings this week, and has a lunch meeting with Anne Monaghan from Inform PR tomorrow.

James is busy preparing for the finance meeting tomorrow and then strategy meetings on Wednesday and Thursday.

Jayne has her usual meetings this week, as well as the strategy meetings later in the week. Tomorrow she has a Business in the Community meeting at 4pm, and she has volunteered to come in to the office on Good Friday to cover the phones.

In what sounds like an exciting meeting, Heather will be speaking to Bertrand from Supernova Productions tomorrow afternoon.

Have a nice week.

Monday 11th April 2011

Guest writer Phyllis McMahon

We had exciting news here at Legal-Island on Friday afternoon. Julie rang to let us know -Baby Grace Lynn McCloskey was born at 11.05 and has sandy hair with blue eyes and in her mother’s words is “just perfect”. Congratulations to Julie and Peter I'm sure all the sleepless nights will be worth it.

It has been a glorious weekend, spirits are high as we go into another very busy week.

Today Barry is meeting the company coach, Richard O’Rawe and then has internal meetings with senior staff this afternoon. Tomorrow he’s off to London for a business growth seminar. On Wednesday he has a meeting in the City and Thursday and Friday no doubt he’ll be out networking or working on a business development idea.

Today Jayne is off to Manchester for Agency and Data Protection meetings which will run tomorrow. On Thursday she is hosting at the HR Conference and for the rest of week she has internal meetings.

Peter is volunteering with the Ballycraigy Primary School footballers on Wednesday afternoon and looking after the exhibitors at the HR Conference on Thursday

Scott will be chairing the NI HR Conference at the Ramada on Thursday 14 April.

Heather is at a meeting on Tuesday with Antrim Borough Council to discuss their fundraising for McMillan Palliative Care Unit. On Wednesday she is at Corrs Corner for the Education Law Update On Thursday she is attending the Women In Business Membership Information Seminar and then she will be taking the hockey at Ballycraigy Primary School.

Kerry has the NI Education Law Update on Wednesday in Corrs, which Heather will be kindly hosting for her. She will be out at the NI Annual HR Conference on Thursday at the Ramada with Peter, Jayne and Scott as chair.

Enjoy your week.

Guest Writer: Jacqui, 4th April 2011

It's hard to believe that the first quarter of the year has already passed.

We finished off the quarter with Age & Retirement event in Belfast, which by all accounts was a very successful day and well done to all those concerned. We are also holding this event in Dublin on June 2nd.

I would like to welcome Allison Sutherland onto the Island. She previously worked for Duncan Bannatyne and left his employ to move over to N.Ireland, so she comes with high credentials. Allison will be joining us for the next two months in a marketing consultancy capacity.

This week we have Schrader making use of the Training centre on Thursday and as far as staff movements go, we are busy as usual.

Barry is off to Dublin today and will be back on the Island tomorrow.

On Tuesday, Scott will be meeting Invest NI representatives, along with Penny Thornberry of P Thornberry Solutions. On Wednesday, Scott will be in Dublin to meet lawyers from both ByrneWallace solicitors and Hayes solicitors about some of our Republic of Ireland events. Scott will be working from home on Thursday and Friday.

Our MD, Jayne is leaving today and jetting off to London for 2 events, Data Protection and Agency Workers which we are running in conjunction with Squire Sanders Hammonds. Then Jayne is back in the office on Thursday, when she and Ainsley will be interviewing candidates for a Marketing Internship.

Heather is again, heading to Dublin where she will be hosting our Essentials of Employment Law and Dealing with Teacher Misconduct on Wednesday and on Thursday she will be at Discipline and Underperformance Matters.

Peter is volunteering with the footballers of Ballycraigy P.S on Wednesday afternoon. And on Thursday evening he is attending a social media event at Citi Golf.

Donna is at the launch of Safe Place Initiative in Antrim on Thursday which has been organised by Women's Aid.

From everyone here on the Island, have a great week ahead!!

Guest Writer - Arnold, 28 March

Welcome to the Legal-Island Blog.

Last week saw the start of mental health awareness week . We at Legal-Island took an active role so last Thursday we had a relaxation day, all staff had a 10 minutes break and listened to a relaxation podcast. Friday was a ‘’Fruity’’ day where everybody had a healthy lunch and some fruit smoothies .Today we had the option of going for a short walk or being part of a Wii bowling competition at lunch time.

Our training centre will be use by Royal College of GP’s on Wednesday and Health Improvement Committee on Thursday.

Today is a Julie’s last day before she heads off on maternity leave. We wish her all the best and looking forward to seeing her back in Legal-Island.

Networking:

Jayne

On Tuesday Jayne is attending Recruitment and Selection workshop at the Leighinmor House Hotel in Ballymena

Wednesday morning she is attending the IoD Reform Club in Belfast for an IoD Young Directors Forum

Friday she is in Dublin for Association of Coaching Annual Meeting

Heather

Heather is in Ballycraigy Primary School helping out with the hockey on Thursday.

Ainsley

Ainsley is going to coach junior football at Ballycraigy Primary School on Wednesday afternoon, followed by a visit to Parkhall College to continue with the Young Enterprise initiative.

Scott

Scott will be mediating in a dispute on Tuesday and will be chairing the ‘Age and Retirement’ event at the Ramada Hotel, Shaw’s Bridge, on 31 March. He may be working from home on Wednesday and/or Friday

Kerry

Kerry will be out hosting the Age and Retirement Event at the Ramada,Shawsbridge, on Thursday.

Barry

Barry's head is buzzing today after attending a seminar in London over
the weekend. He's meeting Will McKee from Linkubator over lunch today
and is in the office all day tomorrow. On Wednesday morning he's
attending a breakfast seminar at the Radisson Row Valley Country Park
delivered by the head of the Bank of England. For the rest of the time
he's in the office working on new programmes. On Saturday he flies to
Geneva for the weekend. How do the Swiss say "Lucky Pup" I wonder?

Guest Writer Jayne Finlay 21st March 2011

Hello to another week on the Island! And a busy one it is too...

After a week off it fills like I've never been away, somehow Island House does not have quite the same ring as Top of the Rock but I couldn't stay (or afford to stay!) in New York forever! So I'm back to face the challenges ahead!

A big Legal-Island welcome to our new start Debbie! Debbie joins us as a part time administrator working every Monday, Tuesday and Friday - we look forward to working with you Debbie!

And so this weeks networking begins...

Barry has a packed week as ever. He’s meeting Will McKee Monday afternoon to discuss some business issues. On Tuesday morning he’s meeting Peter O’Reilly from Mediation Northern Ireland before attending the launch of the Irish News Awards at the Belfast Waterfront Hall. That same afternoon he’s attending a seminar delivered by Ira Koretsky through until 6p.m. after which he’s hosting a dinner discussion on the way forward for mediation in NI.

On Wednesday he’s at an export seminar in the morning at the Innovation centre. On Thursday he’s at a breakfast seminar delivered by Brian Dunlop and that yet another seminar straight after that delivered by the Centre for Competitiveness. On Friday Barry’s in the office all day before flying off to London for an all day EBA seminar on Saturday.

Scott is meeting with Joe Blair of MBS and Penny Thornberry on Tuesday to discuss customer care events. On Friday Scott is visiting Decora Blinds in Lisburn as the guest of HR Manager Mark McGurnaghan.

Ainsley is meeting Paula Milligan (Marketing Consultant) on Wednesday morning, followed by football at Ballycraigy and Young Enterprise on Wednesday afternoon. Ainsley as always will be on the ball generating more sales for our conferences.

I am in and our of meetings most of Monday, on Wednesday I am at the Europa Hotel with Kerry for a WIB and Chamber of Commerce Networking event. After this I will be helping out with the Ballycraigy school hockey team.

Heather is off to Dublin tomorrow for a number of ROI events and on Thursday the Training Centre holds Section 75

That's a lot to be getting on with for this week I think!

See you all soon!

Guest Writer - Heather, 14th March 2011

Hello all, or should I say cock-a-doodle-doo!

That's right Barry finally got the Legal-Island hens and what stunning chicks they are! We have 4 Aruncan hens which will hopefully lay some lovely blue/green eggs. Everyone is more than welcome to call round to meet Biatta, Britney, Christina and last but not least Henrietta.

It's an egg-citing week this week at the Island, with of course lots of networking as usual. Here is what we are all at this week:

Barry

is standing in for MD, Jayne Finlay, (who’s in New York) leading the troops in the Monday morning meeting and the Ops meeting immediately after. On Tuesday, Barry’s out for Olympic tickets just like everyone else. Cycling, rowing, and the men’s 100 metres is what he’s after by all accounts. On Tuesday afternoon he’s meeting Bill McCartney from Net4wise owls. On Wednesday he’s attending a seminar delivered by John McKee all about better export techniques. On Wednesday lunch he’s meeting Peter O’Reilly from Mediation Northern Ireland and then coach, Richard O’Rawe. He’s taking his St Patrick’s Day on Friday going to Milan for the weekend for a dose of the dolce vita. I wonder will his chicks miss him?

Scott

Scott will be chairing the HR Network meeting on 15 March. The guest speaker is Bill McCartney from Net 4 Wise Owls. Bill will be discussing the positive uses of social networking for HR professionals.

On Friday Scott will be getting his picture taken alongside other speakers from the Northern Ireland HR Conference at the Ramada Hotel in Belfast. Watch out for allegorical carrots. The picture will be used in their Business Section by our partners at the Belfast Telegraph. The conference will take place on 14th April at the Ramada Hotel.

Ainsley

Tuesday – meeting Bill McCartney to discuss social media, particularly our Facebook strategy
Wednesday – meeting Paula Milligan (consultant) re: marketing initiatives, then out in the afternoon to Ballycraigy Primary School (football) and Parkhall College (Young Enterprise).
Friday – morning photoshoot at the Ramada Shaw’s Bridge with the speakers for the HR Conference

The Events team

We will be attending the Holiday Inn, Belfast Launch Night

Donna

Will be volunteering on Wednesday at Ecos centre as part of the 'Saint for a Day' scheme run by Business in the Community.

Independent health care providers will be using the training centre on Wednesday.

Please check out our 'Recommendations of the Month' page online where we provide up- to-date information on the very best contacts that we use.

Guest Writer - Donna - 7th March 2011

I have to say March is one of my favourite months as it means the evenings are getting longer, the birds are singing, the lambs are skipping in the fields and we can hopefully say goodbye to the dull cold days and nights of winter - although this is Northern Ireland, our weather doesn't always abide by the months of the year!

March is full of wellbeing awareness days including International Womens day on 8th March, No Smoking Day on 9th March and it is the Ovarian and Prostrate cancer awareness month - for further information see http://www.ovarian.org.uk/
www.prostate-cancer.org.uk.

The older folks around North Antrim have a saying that if "March comes in like a lion it will go out like a lamb" - here at Legal Island we are charging into March like a lion with a full programme of events in NI, ROI and GB, for full details see our website at http://www.legal-island.com/or http://www.legal-island.ie/

Who is doing what this week?

Barry

Barry's week started early with a meeting at 8.30a.m. this morning with Quintin Oliver from Statagem. He has another with a representative of BITC at lunch today and a business dinner this evening at the Stormont. On Tuesday evening he's attending a business book review club in Belfast whilst on Wednesday he's meeting barrister, Mark McEvoy for lunch at the Hilton. On Thursday he's a phone call conference with Guy Levene and so far Friday is completely free but no doubt that will change before he's got stuck into even part of the week.

Jayne

On Monday Jayne is meeting John Heaslip from BITC with Barry. On Tuesday Jayne and Heather will be attending the Women in Business and IOD event at the La Mon and on Wednesday she will be meeting lisa McIlvenna and Lindsay McKee from BITC to discuss our membership. On Thursday she will be jetting off to New York for a "mini shopping major spend" break - we are not at all jealous!

Heather

Ballycraigy hockey team will have the assistance of Heather on Thursday afternoon

Kerry

Last week Kerry hosted in the Stillorgan and was so impressed by the table lighting provided for the delegates at lunchtime that she took a photo -they were treated like royalty.

This week Kerry will be hosting at theEssentials of Employment Law event on Thursday at the Hilton, Belfast.

Ainsley

On Thursday Ainsley and Peter will be at Ballycraigy Primary school coaching the football team and then he will head onto Parkhall college for his YENI slot.

Staff News...

We are thrilled to have John Hardy back with us, he will be covering the Email Service Manager post when Julie is off on maternity leave.

In admin we will be conducting second round interviews to appoint a new part time administrator.

We are looking forward to meeting the new telesales addition to the marketing team. Her name is Rose Henry and I hope she will enjoy her time with us.

And Finally....
In case you wondered, Legal Island wont be going out of March like a lamb we will do it all again in April.