One of the most popular highlights in the calendar is the annual International Symposium.
It convenes for four days in a different country each year, normally in September/October, giving members a chance to gain an insight into the culture and history of the host country through its maps.
In 2010 we are pleased to announce that this year the Symposium is being held in London.  The format of the programme is typical of previous events – three mornings of talks from experts in their field related to a designated cartographic theme.  This year the theme is Britain, Power and Influence in the 17th and 18th Centuries. 

These morning sessions are complemented in the afternoon by outings to public and private map collections, visits to museums, and often an exhibition is specially put together for the conference.  Each 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! 

Speaking to regular attendees who have participated in the Symposium programmes in many parts of the world, they will tell you that it has provided them with the opportunity to see some of the most important maps and related documents in existence, for example the Juan de La Cosa map in Spain, the Cantino World Map in Italy, the Treaty of Waitangi between the Maori’s and the British in New Zealand, and many others.  Each host country visited has set out its best cartographic material for IMCoS and members are indeed privileged to see it. Participants experience the warm hospitality of hosts happy to share their cartographic treasures with a global audience.

Studying cartography in this manner naturally provides exposure and insight to local history and culture.  In Budapest, for example, 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.

As well as the excitement and intensity of the Symposium, more relaxing pre or post-conference tours may be arranged.  This gives further exposure to the culture of the host country and a 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.  In London this year, the main tour will visit Hereford to see the Mappa Mundi and two typical but different stately homes, and a further day is devoted to the map collection at Hatfield House.

Our series of International meetings began in 1982 and except for 1983 and 2006 we have held an International Symposium every year. The following is the complete list, showing a wide variety of places in the Americas, Europe, and Australasia.  

In 2011 we will be visiting Tokyo, Japan and Vienna, Austria will be our venue in 2012, so “Watch this space!”

David Webb, the official IMCoS photographer can be seen here with a (self-made) T-shirt depicting all International Symposium meetings since IMCoS’ inauguration. David is the only member to have been to all the international meetings. David has provided the majority of the photos to these web pages.