Remember when we couldn't travel beyond 2 kilometres from our homes last year?
When the Government announced travel restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19 on March 27, 2020, David Bolger's wife turned to him and wondered, "What does our 2km look like?"
The developer and owner of Devhaus, which develops websites and software applications, created the 2KM From Home website that very evening.
The website's map allowed the public to easily visualise what radius they could travel and exercise within under the then-2km limit and was adapted to include other distances as restrictions evolved. On the first day of operation, over 800,000 people visited the site.
Travel restrictions were introduced in countries around the world, and the site was updated to reflect those distances. Users have visited the website from countries including Australia, France, Spain, South Africa and India.
At the beginning of August 2020, a 6-week lockdown with an exercise and shopping limit of 5km was introduced in Melbourne, Australia. This resulted in over 400,000 visitors to 2kmfromhome.com in the first 3 days of August.
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In total, 7 million have visited the site including 2 million from Australia, 2 million from Malaysia, 2.5 million in Ireland and the rest from around the world.
In recognition of his work, Mr Bolger was announced as the winner of the Special Covid-19 Response Award at the Ireland Chapter of Project Management Institute’s (PMI) National Project Awards, held in partnership with PwC last night.
The website will live on beyond the pandemic. Mr Bolger plans to develop it as a public amenity - expanding it to allow people to sign up so they can drop flags, plan routes and save their favourite spots, routes and amenities in their local area radius or in areas they would like to visit.
They will also then be able to share that with friends and family.
A further five winners, all excelling within the project management discipline, were also announced at the virtual awards ceremony.
The Project Management Office (PMO) of the Year was awarded to Revenue PMO for the team's "comprehensive approach to developing and imbedding project management ways of working across the organisation".
Jonny Mooney of Expleo, who was highlighted for his "great ability to use both the science and the art of project management to achieve project success", was recognised as Project Professional of the Year.
The Public Sector Project of the Year went to the Tallaght University Hospital for its Reeves Day Surgery Centre Project which saw the opening of a new 3,460 sq m facility to eliminate long wait times for routine day surgery and increase elective day surgery activity.
The Private Sector Project of the Year was awarded to Bank of Ireland – Retail Ireland for its end-to-end customer transformation programme, which heralded a transformation of Bank of Ireland’s systems and culture.
The award for Project Management for Social Good went to the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland for its Pan African Paediatric Surgery E-Learning Platform, a free-to-use service which supports the training of much-needed paediatric surgeons across Africa.
President of the Ireland Chapter of PMI Jackie Glynn, said: "Over the past year, we have seen exceptional work and resilience from those working within all facets of the project management industry, in circumstances unlike any experienced before.
"From prioritising public health here and overseas to pivoting services to ensure customer experience, we were truly impressed by the standard of the submissions," she said.
"The winners announced today exemplify the best in our profession and highlight the myriad benefits effective project management brings to an organisation," she added.
