Guest Writer: Julie - 28 February 2011

March is upon us and Spring is in the air!


This is the first of one of our very busy weeks in the South with 4 events in total taking place in Dublin over the 2nd and 3rd of March. On the 2nd of March we are hosting 'Employment Law in the Public Sector' followed by ' Stress and Bullying at work'. ' Mastering the HR Function' and 'Education Law Update 2011' will take place on the 3rd of March. It's quite a busy week for Heather and she will be joined by Kerry on Thursday to help co-host the 'Education' event.


Schrader will be using the Legal Island training centre today right through until Wednesday and then on Friday the 'Public Health Agency' will be using it in the morning time.

Staff movements for the forthcoming week are as follows:

Barry - is having lunch with David Pierce from 'Todd Communications' this afternoon but other than that he will remain on the Island today.
On Tuesday he's in Dublin hearing a mediation appeal and meeting a representative from 'Certification Europe'. On Wednesday he's meeting Pip Jaffa from the 'Parents Advice Centre' and Mary Montague from 'Tidestraining'. On Wednesday evening Barry has a round table dinner with a minister as a guest of the Chamber of Commerce. On Thursday he's in London at another EBA seminar and on Friday he's still there networking.

Scott - This week Scott Alexander will be meeting Penny Thornberry from 'P Thornberry Solutions' and Tom Evans and Alan Scott from 'DEL'. He also hopes to attend the Legal Island ' Employment Law in the Public Sector' event in Dublin in association with McCann Fitzgerald solicitors.

Heather - is hosting the Dublin events this Wednesday and Thursday and on Friday she is attending a WIB & Network Ireland event at the Guinness Store House.

Kerry - is attending an 'Effective Business Writing Course' on Tuesday morning in Antrim.

Ainsley - will be attending Parkhall College on Wednesday afternoon for the 'Young Enterprise Group'.

Jayne - is meeting with Sarah Bondi from NACCO on Wednesday to chat about EFQM. On Thursday she is attending an event with EWN to celebrate International Woman's Day with Ruth Badger (formerly an apprentice candidate), this will take place in Dundalk. On Friday Jayne will be attending a Marketing meeting In-House.


Onwards............

Guest Writer: Vanessa

Welcome to another busy week on The Island. We are holding two events in our Training Centre this week - a seminar on Redundancy on Wednesday which sold out a number of weeks ago and a repeat of the Customer Service course that we ran successfully for the first time last September.

As far as the activities of our staff go - when have we ever let the grass grow under our feet?!

Barry has 5 days of intensive networking ahead of him this week beginning today with meetings with David Gaston, Noel Brady of NB1 and Peter McBride CEO of Niamh. On Tuesday he's meeting Brian Speers of CMG Solicitors in the morning, Dave Vincent of KDS and then David Brittain of the DOENI. On Wednesday he's meeting Melanie Donnelly from Full Circle. On Thursday he's in London attending a seminar delivered by the Entrepreneurs' Business Academy. On Friday he's hoping to have a meeting with Squire Sanders Hammonds before heading off to the Royal Opera House to see the operat they're all talking about at the moment "Nicole". Lucky pup!


Scott will be meeting with Tom Evans and Alan Scott from DEL this week and also Karen Thompson from the Belfast Telegraph along with Peter. Scott is also going to be helping out at the Customer First event on Thursday.

Jayne is attending a Management and Leadership Conference at the University of Ulster on Wednesday with Heather and Ainsley. She is back at Ballycraigy Primary School on Thursday taking a hockey lesson. On Friday she is attending the SOCITM event at the Park Avenue in Belfast - this is an event we are co-sponsoring with Noel Brady and CIPFA.

Peter and Ainsley will also be volunteering at Ballycraigy this week, coaching the football team.

Guest Writer: Peter

Last week saw the successful Winning Tenders in Northern Ireland conference keenly attended by various SME's and large private sector companies. The event was so popular we'd to change the venue!

We don't have any conferences this week, but that doesn't mean there's any slacking on the 'Island...

Here's what's going on this week:

Barry is in the office all day today signing off a few events. On Tuesday he's meeting Brian Speers, President of the Law Society, Ciara Fulton from Tughans and John Brolly from the Irish News. He also has a coaching session with Richard O'Rawe in the afternoon. On Wednesday he's up with the early birds for a breakfast meeting of BNI at Dunsilly Hotel, then meeting Mick Doggat for lunch. On Thursday he has an evening dinner at Parliament Building’s. Barry has a Friday free at the moment, but as we all know, that’s likely to change.

In a comedown from last weeks ‘networking’ at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Scott will be attending the tribunal users’ group meeting at the Office of the Industrial Tribunal and Fair Employment Tribunal on Thursday.

Kerry is meeting with the daughter of Michelle Groves who facilitates our Professional Workplace Investigations Workshops. Claire is completing her final year at UUJ in Events, Leisure and Culture management and is coming in to discuss a proposed business plan she is undertaking in her last semester rather than a dissertation.

Although not on the same scale as Barry, Ainsley has quite a busy week in terms of meetings. On Monday afternoon he’ll be meeting Rachel Morgan and Niall Gormley of DCP PR, on Tuesday morning he’s got our (conveniently located and reasonably priced) Training Centre booked for his meeting with Brian Nelson of Forth Data. Wednesday afternoon is slightly more light-hearted when he’s off to meet with his Young Enterprise team at Parkhall College.

On Thursday, Heather is volunteering with Ballycraigy Primary School, helping out with the coaching of their hockey teams.

Jayne and Heather will don their old clothes on Friday when the head off to help paint the Antrim Counselling Centre on Friday, again as part of our volunteering initiative.

A busy week all round!

Guest Writer: Ainsley

HONK! HONK! went the horn in the office this morning. We have a horn that gets honked every time we have an important announcement or success to report - and today was no exception. The early morning din signalled our first booking of the year for our GB event: Age and Retirement - The New Law

This is an important moment because all of us on the Island have been preparing for our 'assault' on London, Birmingham and Manchester for some time - hopefully this is the first of many bookings.

Keeping our feet firmly on the ground, we still have a lot of work to do this week in NI and ROI. Wednesday and Thursday bring trips to Galway and Athlone respectively, for our education event: Dealing with Teacher Underperformance. The latter is sold out but there are still a few places left for Galway.

Also on Thursday we have our first full day NI event of the year, with Winning Tenders taking place at the Hilton Hotel, Templepatrick. We had originally intended to run this event at our Training Centre, but huge popular demand forced us to source a bigger venue. There are still one or two places left, but only if you're quick!

This week our CEO, Barry will be meeting Laura Coulter, mediator, today and is hearing a mediation appeal tomorrow. He is also meeting Trayc Keevans from Morgan McKinley tomorrow as well as Hannah Carney from Dale Carnegie. On Thursday, he's meeting the company performance coach, Fiona Keenan, as well as Robert from BITC and on Friday he's meeting Alan McVey from Iron Mountain. In the evenings he's finishing off 'Winning' by Clive Woodward - a fabulous book about how he led a team to rugby World Cup glory. It's stuffed full of great business tips apparently, so watch this space!

Also out and about this week is Scott, our Head of Training and Development. He will be in Dublin meeting Pat Brady from ByrneWallace Solicitors and also McDowell Purcell Solicitors on Wednesday, followed by a meeting with representatives from Irish Life on Friday.

Our ROI Conference Manager, Heather, is our social butterfly this week, meeting Richard Fee today who runs the charity Eye Feel Good, followed by Elaine Magee of Antrim Borough Council tomorrow, to talk about volunteering opportunities. On Thursday Heather will be discussing 'Growth through mentoring' with Women In Business and on Friday she will be meeting Katie Setterfield of CLIC Sargent, with me.

As well as meeting Katie on Friday, I will also be at Parkhall College on Wednesday afternoon to continue the Young Enterprise Business Programme and on Thursday morning I am meeting Phil Boyd from Boyd Communications.

Independent Health Care Providers are using our Training Centre, tomorrow so Donna will be busy preparing for their arrival, followed by a trip to Ballycraigy Primary School with Kerry to play hockey on Thursday.

Right, I think that's it for this week. Hopefully my incessant tapping of keys will soon be drowned out by yet more horns!!

Have a great week.

Guest Writer: Bronagh

Celebrations!!!! Have you heard Legal-Island's recent success story? Last Thursday Barry, Jayne and Ainsley attended the EFQM Awards at the Ramada Hotel, Belfast and were delighted to take home the Mark of Excellence in the Private Sector Award. The trophy now stands very proudly with our other achievements in the reception area of the building - for all to see! Read more.

Last week was an extremely busy time for staff in Legal-Island with the first of the seminars kicking off 2011 at the Holiday Inn, Tuesday 25th January with Mediation Breakfast. Booked out, everything went extremely well, we have already received some excellent feedback this week. We also had our first event in Cork - Dealing with Teacher Underperformance. This too went very well.

Winning Tenders in NI is coming up shortly and creating a bit of a stir at the moment. Due to extensive interest planned for Thursday 10th February, we are now moving venue to the Hilton Hotel, Templepatrick.

See below overview of everyone's movements and a busy start for February. Where did January go?

Barry is just back from a James Caan (EBA) seminar in London and his head is still buzzing with ideas. Today he’s meeting Melanie Donnelly for lunch from Full Circle and tomorrow Joe Dolan from the DFP. On Wednesday he’s taking part in the EFQM feedback session delivered by Tony Wilson which should be interesting. On Thursday he’s out to break all networking records by having 8 meetings in 8 hours including Nicola Shaw from BDO, Tom Place from the ANIC, Noel Brady from NB1, Katie Doran from Carson McDowell Catherine Vint from the ICO Hilary from Quell training Laura Colter and then finally dinner with Penna. On Friday he has a day in the office with nothing in his diary – at least for the moment.

Jayne is busy today with the usual internal Monday meeting and then on Wednesday she has the EFQM feedback meeting. Same day, evening time, Jayne has the Young Directors Forum.

Scott will be chairing the Antrim/Ballymena HR Network on 1st February. The guest speaker is Pauline Huth of NI Financial Consultancy Services, who will be discussing pension changes. One 3rd February Scott will be meeting Anne Dargan, Organisational Development Consultant and Certified Leadership Coach, Director, Rapid Change Consultancy.

Ainsley, in Marketing, is attending tomorrow's Speed Networking event in the Holiday Inn, Belfast which commences shortly after work. On Wednesday he is doing some volunteer football coaching at Ballycraigy Primary School. As you know, the staff of Legal-Island volunteer on various projects of their choosing and seem to throw themselves into each and every project. Ainsley is also busy the same day in the afternoon at the Young IoD Forum in Belfast. Thursday brings plans as Forth Data are coming to see us to present the Oriel email broadcast tool and in the afternoon, BEN Networking event at UTV. So, an exciting week for Ainsley!

Heather is attending the Speed Networking meeting with Ross Licence from Events Studio this Friday.

Julie is attending Speed Networking tomorrow with some of the others. This is Julie's first time and is looking forward to the experience.

Guest Writer: Kerry

Although we have excellent Training facilities on site here at Legal-Island, Antrim, (see left) due to numbers or location we often have to use external venues. So last Wednesday I took a day to head off to Belfast and see what other options were out there. For further information on our facilities please click onto Training Centre.


We already have some great relationships with local hotels however I was delighted to come across more possible venues on my journey. To name a few there were the CIPFA Offices, Belfast, La Mon Hotel & Country Club, Castlereagh, The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland Offices, Belfast, The Ulster Museum and finally Mossley Mill in Newtownabbey. All unique spaces to accommodate the different types of meetings Legal-Island run each season.


Another busy week sees the start of the conference season both in NI and ROI. Heather jets off tomorrow to Cork to host our first sell out event of the year - Dealing with Teacher Underperformance. And I am off to host a Free Mediation in the Workforce Seminar in Belfast on Tuesday morning.


Out and about:


Heather will be meeting with Emer from Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel today.


I will attending a BEN Speed Networking Event with Jayne tomorrow evening and then I have a networking dinner to attend at the Ramada, Shawsbridge, on Wednesday night.


Jacqui will be continuing with our volunteering initiative by helping take a group of Primary 4's from Mount St Michael's PS in Randalstown to Cultra this week. Should be lots of fun!


Barry's got an easy Monday with little in the diary other than internal meetings. On Tuesday he opens up the Breakfast seminar on Mediation at the Holiday Inn along with Tom Evans from DEL. On Thursday night Barry, Jayne, Ainsley and our guest Michelle Gallen from Shhmooze is off to the EFQM Gala Awards to pick up Legal-Island's mark of excellence. On Friday he's off to London. Lucky him!


Scott will be in Dublin on Wednesday. Meetings include those with Marion Jennings, chair of our Irish Annual Reviews of Employment Law; Peter McInnes of McDowell Purcell; Emma Barrett of Keating & Associates, John Horgan; consultant, and Niall Saul of Symbio HR Solutions.

More volunteering with Ballycraigy Primary: Peter & Ainsley will be going along on Wednesday to support the football team who is playing a friendly at Muckamore with the hope to help out during training as the season progresses. Also this week sees the first hockey training session and I will be going along to help and hopefully bring a little energy to the new team!

Here's to another busy & successful event season on the Island....

Legal-Island: What We're Up to This Week

This week, Scott Alexander writes:

I don't have any meetings this week but should have an interview published in the Belfast Telegraph. Fame at last!

Ainsley Hirst, our Marketing and Sales Manager, will be at Parkhall College on Wednesday afternoon for Young Enterprise group - they collected over £1000 via the business they set up at school.

Still on volunteering matters, Bronagh McCotter will be visiting NI Children’s Hospice (collecting reindeer food boxes, counting money and recording).

CEO Barry Phillips meanwhile has got a relatively quiet week ahead at least in terms of meetings out of the office. Monday- Thursday he’s busy getting ready for and doing performance reviews whilst helping marketing sign off brochures. On Thursday he’s meeting our friends from CIPFA and he’s hoping to see Legal-Island lawyers O’Reilly Stewart on Friday.

MD Jayne Finlay and Conference Manager Kerry Taggart will be discussing sponsorship issues with Ballycraigy PS hockey team on Tuesday.