One of the most popular highlights in the calendar is the annual International Symposium, began in 1982 and held in September/October each year. It convenes for four days in a different country each year, giving members a chance to gain an insight into the culture and history of a country through its maps. A typical programme comprises one to two days of talks and slide presentations from experts in their field and related to a designated cartographic theme. These sessions are boosted by outings to see public and private map collections in the area, visits to museums, an exhibition especially put together for the conference and city tours. The symposium begins with a welcome reception and ends with a gala dinner. Other nights are informal and allow members to visit local restaurants, dining in small groups, making new friends and keeping in touch with old ones. Post-conference tours may also be arranged and are wonderful opportunity to consolidate new friendships and spend more time with old friends who you might have missed during the hectic days of the symposium itself.

IMCoS visits a wide variety of places so that there is something new and interesting to offer members from all continents. The following is a complete listing of the International events held to date and planned ahead:

In 2002 and 2003 we had repeat visits to Cyprus and Netherlands respectively. The choice of a return visit to Amsterdam was of particular success. A place with such history of exploration and mapping and, in2002, celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Complete with trips to polders, water control systems, wind mills and a canal ride as a complement to first class lectures, this symposium was topped with a gala dinner in the old Town Hall, and represented one of IMCoS' most successful events ever.

Five years before this, the Symposium was held in Budapest, Hungary. Participants discovered how varied, and at times vulnerable, the history and culture of a nation can be when it is situated in the heart of a great continent, where the ambitions of peoples from north, south, east and west create tidal waves of conquest and the redrawing of maps in the process. Our study of maps in the heart of Europe was enhanced by visits to The Séchenyi National Library and other interesting map collections, not only in Budapest but also to the west and east of the capital, for example in the monastery at Pannonhalma. A traditional welcoming reception and a gala dinner competed the programme throughout which participants experienced the warm hospitality of a people happy to share their cartographic treasures with a global audience.