As you by now know (or should know), GeoConnect³d is a project that is not ordinary. Your average project will promise to deliver something, or resolve an issue, come up with an evaluation… The typical project is goal oriented. That is an attractive formula, because the one that pays, knows what to expect in return.

For those of you that do not make a daily living by funding research, compare it to going to the hairdresser. Usually you will enter the shop, say something like ‘make me look like a pop-star’, after which the coiffeur produces a picture of an extremely handsome girl or guy and says something like ‘this maybe?’. After agreeing, you are at his mercy until he is finished with you, and you leave the shop either happy or sad.

Compare that to the experience with a GeoConnect³d stylist. The conversation would be very different. For a start, our barber knows that you want to look like a pop-star, and also knows that this should not be your prime goal in life. Therefore, you will be greeted with words like ‘people in the street are not looking their best, don’t you agree we need to do something about that?’. If you fall for that trap, the next rhetorical statement will be ‘and today we will not be using scissors, there are some other devices that are worth trying…’.

Ever wonder how many clients we have? People tend to be quite conservative when spending money, especially when it involves their hair. So, we have been lying in wait for a less cautious customer to pass by, and that customer was GeoERA.

Don’t get us wrong, our intentions are decent, and don’t involve chainsaws or other instruments of torture. You will be offered a comfortable chair to sit in, a magazine of choice to read, we wash your hair while massaging your brains in the most relaxing way… nothing will seem out of the ordinary. Until we produce our alternative devices such as geomanifestations and a structural framework.

Because you are our first client, we cannot tell you yet how happy and satisfied you will leave our shop, although we like to think that you will. There is also no picture of what you will look like. All we can tell is that you will be a unique sight. For a while at least, because we do expect GeoConnect³d to become the new black very quickly.

And that is probably where the analogy goes astray. Unlike in fashion, scientific progress means improvement. Just so we understand one another.

Kris Piessens
Geological Survey of Belgium