Don't sell the technology; sell the attractiveness of the profession. That might be a good solution to ever-decreasing student numbers. There's no conference held these days without the lack of new students being the topic of a few presentations. GIM International too has carried a series of articles on how to increase the influx of young people keen to study Geomatics. But no reports of success so far, and faculties all over the globe still struggling.

By the time you read this, one of the biggest sports events on the globe will have got underway. The Tour de France, the world's greatest cycling event, brings out onto the roads of Europe more than two hundred cyclists and numerous service cars, motorcycles, trucks and a crowd of 4,500 men and women who work on the Tour. It starts in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and finishes as per tradition in Paris, France. This travelling circus needs to be tracked and traced to avoid traffic jams, not to say total chaos in the areas travelled through. It is here that GNSS receivers are calculating positions and broadcasting them to a mobile control room. Journalists, traffic coordinators, ambulances and other services are all making use of this info (see our news feature). From the first steps in preparation for the World Cup in South Africa up to the final on 11th July geomatics has played its part: from planning to construction, mapping to risk management. And imagine the key role of our industry over coming years, with the Olympics coming to London in 2012. Truly an attractive use of geomatics!

The authors Stephan Nebiker and Susanne Bleisch from the University of Applied Sciences in Muttenz, Switzerland and Eberhard Gülch from Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences in Germany have surveyed the impact of Virtual Globes  such as Google Earth and Microsoft Bing Maps among experts at national mapping organisations in Europe, see their article. Respondents consider Virtual Globes to have a predominantly positive impact on business and raising public awareness of geospatial data. The impact of the Virtual Globes is described as another example of adding attractiveness to the profession.

I've written before about the attractiveness of this business; about being part of an international community and travelling to and working in beautiful places, often all over the world. To this you can add working in a community that's involved in realising the world's biggest sports events, not just tracking the athlete's accomplishments, but also managing the risks involved in these huge happenings. To sum up: this work encompasses an environment that could be described as Google Earth or Bing Maps for professionals. Indeed, very attractive.