Richard McLennan

Izimvo is honoured to introduce the man behind the official Durban 2010 Website, Richard McLennan.

Website: http://fifaworldcup.durban.gov.za
Twitter: http://twitter.com/richmclennan
Location: Durban

We first met Richard when he presented on the development and progress of the 2010 website at 27Dinner here in Durban. His presentation followed a slew of negative press regarding the costs associated with site. We were impressed by the presentation and the manner in which Richard spoke openly about the process.

We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Richard to chat about the project, his involvement and what makes him tick.

Richard, who is now 35, grew up in Umhlanga, Durban where he attended Northwood Boys High. His first career as a diver started with two years national service in the Navy as a navy diver and ended in his mid 20′s as a commercial diver and sport diver instructor.

In 1999, with a Visual Basic diploma in-hand, Richard headed for the UK looking to kick-start his IT career. Using the Dot-com boom to his advantage, Richard secured a position as an HTML coder with a small startup just outside Manchester.

After 6 months, Richard moved on to join the 3rd largest web agency in Europe, working on large projects for companies such as Channel 5 TV and Marks & Spencer. He was later head-hunted by M&S to startup a e-commerce business and ended up as web manager on the Marks & Spencer account. At the time, the Marks & Spencer site was generating about £60 million in sales annually. Richard later joined Monsoon Accessorize as e-commerce manager.

3 years ago, after getting married and having a child, Richard decided to head back home to Durban. Richard, who now works for AdaptIT, has been working on the Durban 2010 website project since its inception.

Richard explained that the long-term development project has been broken up into 3 phases with the first going live a couple of months back. The initial deployment included a Microsoft Sharepoint CMS implementation, English and Zulu content, interactive maps, stadium web cams amongst other features. The remaining phases include features such as translations into Spanish, French and German, social media integration advanced interactive maps etc.

Below is a quote from Julie-May Elingson, head of Durban’s Strategic Projects Unit, explaining the thinking behind the website:

“It’s important that the website provides a productive, memorable and frustration-free experience for our visitors. We wanted to create a website that would be a source of useful information for tourists who want to visit the city, as well as showcase Durban as being a technically savvy city. When it comes to Durban 2010, www.fifaworldcup.durban.gov.za will be the ‘one stop shop’ for all information.”

Besides working on the Durban 2010 website, Richard is a family man who loves a wide range of sports. He is a regular at the local mountain bike races, enjoys kite boarding up and down the Kwazulu Natal coast and an early morning paddle on the local lagoons. Richard exudes a rare passion for Durban and South Africa which is highly contagious.

Richard was also kind enough to answer a few general questions for us:

General

Q: What are you going to buy yourself as a 40th birthday present?

A: Eye laser surgery and a dye job to get rid of this grey hair I am getting.

Q: Favorite South African Sporting moment of the last 10 years?

A: Winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup!

Q: One book that you would make required reading for all matric pupils?

A: Spud!

Q: If you were to win the Lotto this weekend, what is the first thing you would buy with the winnings?

A: My house and then I’d probably take the family to the Spur or maybe Sushi if I decide to go really big.

Q: Having lived in the UK for 9 years, what are the things that you miss the most?

A: Good coffee and amazon.co.uk

Q: Who would you most like to read about on Izimvo?

A: Interesting people from all facets of life.

A huge thank you to Richard for taking the time to chat to us. Richard has a very difficult task over the coming months, one that we will follow with a great deal of interest leading into the World Cup. We wish him and the team behind the Durban 2010 website every success.