ICC 2017 to be Held in the U.S.

In 2017, the International Cartographic Conference (ICC) will take place in the United States for the first time in nearly 40 years. The conference, hosted by the International Cartographic Association (ICA), will be held July 2-7, 2017, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Eric Anderson, executive director of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS), the U.S. chapter of ICA, is excited for the next ICC—which occurs every other year, often in Europe—to be geographically accessible for many new attendees.

“Washington D.C. is such a tremendous research center,” Anderson said. “We are hoping to offer visits to the Library of Congress map collections, National Geographic, the Smithsonians, and more. There are so many resources in D.C. that I think a lot of people from around the world would love to come and see.”

The conference is accepting submissions through Oct. 26, 2016, for abstract, full paper, and poster presentations. Submissions may be on a wide range of cartographic and geographic information science themes.

ICC 2017 welcomes submissions from members of the GEOINT Community, according to Anderson, and presenters do not have to be a member of CaGIS.

“Anyone affiliated with USGIF is invited to submit,” Anderson said.

Submissions will be assessed on their originality, interest to cartographers, and likelihood of advancing the discipline. Submissions may be technical or creative, scientific or experiential, individual or institutional in scope and approach.

“We still use the term ‘cartography’ because it has a great tradition with us, and every time we say that people think in terms of paper maps on walls,” Anderson said. “But cartography has been modernized like everything else, to include computers, databases, navigation systems, and geographic analysis—whether for environmental impacts, urban planning, location analyses, and more. There are all kinds of uses of geographic information and studies. They are all an important part of what will be displayed at ICC 2017.”

Click here to learn more about ICC 2017 and here for information on submitting an abstract, full paper, or poster for presentation.