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Origins of the Cambridge Conference

Cambridge Conference 2007, the international meeting of chief executives from national mapping organisations around the world, originated from a more modest meeting in the summer of 1928, when some leading surveyors were heading to Cambridge for the International Geographic Congress. The British Colonial Survey Committee decided to take advantage of this to organise an Empire Conference of Survey Officers - 45 people attended, representing countries from Australia to Zanzibar.

This was a tremendous opportunity for all these surveyors with similar roles in very different places to meet, exchange ideas and share experiences. Scattered around the world, they rarely met or communicated with each other.

The 1928 conference proved such a success, with many friendships forged, that it was repeated three years later. Since then, it has been organised at quadrennial intervals. As international events unfolded, the term Empire gave way to Commonwealth, and in recent years more delegates were being invited from non-Commonwealth countries, to give a wider scope to discussions.

By 1995, the decision was taken to extend the Commonwealth meeting into a new Cambridge Conference - a global event for all national mapping organisations - always in Cambridge. It is now a modern inclusive event, keeping the traditional emphasis on opportunity for discussion, both formal and informal.

History of the Cambridge Conference