PRESS RELEASE: BCS Symposium

Mapping Chiefs Unite to Discuss Future of Mapping at BCS Symposium

For what is thought to the first time ever, the heads of the five British Mapping and Charting agencies will come together to discuss the future of mapping in front of an audience of cartographic professionals and enthusiasts. This keynote presentation – ‘probably the most important conference session held in the UK, this year, on the future of mapping’ – acts as a headline for the British Cartographic Society’s 50th Annual Symposium. Part of a year-long celebration of mapmaking the theme of the anniversary Symposium is ‘Today, Tomorrow and Beyond’ reflecting the Society’s forward looking vision for the future of cartography, and the event is being held at the historic Hothorpe Hall, Leicestershire from 3-6 September 2013.

“In our 50^th Anniversary year it is a pleasure to return to Leicestershire as this was where the first Symposium was first held back in 1964,” commented Mr Peter Jones MBE, President of the British Cartographic Society. “It is also a huge honour to welcome senior executives from the five British Mapping and Charting agencies to discuss how their organisations have changed over the past fifty years and highlight what they see as the key elements of the future of mapping. This is the centrepiece of our Anniversary Symposium and emphasises how important maps are today in our rapidly changing and increasingly digital society.”

Dr Vanessa Lawrence CB, Director General and Chief Executive of the Ordnance Survey joins Paul Hancock, Director of the Defence Geographic Centre, John Wilkinson, Chief Executive Land and Property Services, Rear Admiral Ian Moncrieff, CBE, Chief Executive of United Kingdom Hydrographic Office and Professor John Ludden, Executive Director of the British Geological Survey for a session titled ‘The Future for the UK World Leaders in Mapping’.

The BCS Anniversary Symposium will follow the successful format of events developed over the past fifty years including formal presentations, hands on workshops and lively debates. The event kicks off with a number of Special Interest Group meetings, including the Map Curators, GIS and Design groups, followed by the biannual Helen Wallis Memorial Lecture. Nick Millea, Map Librarian at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford will present ‘Today, tomorrow and beyond: can the past project cartography into the future?’ Other sessions during the three day event will include ‘Mapping technologies for tomorrow’, ‘Cartography and Geospatial Intelligence’ and ‘Mapping for the challenges of tomorrow’ with contributions from the Unites States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, Glasgow School of Art and the British Antarctic Survey.

The 2013 BCS Annual Symposium is kindly sponsored by the Society’s corporate members Cadcorp, ESRI (UK), Harper Collins, Leica Geosystems, Newgrove, Ordnance Survey, Star-Apic, The GeoInformation Group and Victoria Litho and is organised on behalf of the Society by Training4GIS.

To find out more about this and other events in the 50th Anniversary Calendar follow the society on: twitter @bcsweb, facebook https://www.facebook.com/bcsweb or visit the webpage www.cartography.org.uk/symposium  

A booking form for the symposium can be downloaded: http://www.cartography.org.uk/downloads/mapping2013/Mapping2013.pdf

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Notes to editors

About the British Cartographic Society

The British Cartographic Society promotes the art and science of cartography through awards, events, publications and special interest groups. 2013 marks the 50^th Anniversary of the Society, a registered charity, and is being celebrated with a year-long programme of promotional, lecture, social and outreach events.  The 2013 calendar of events is sponsored by society corporate members Cadcorp, ESRI (UK), Harper Collins, Leica Geosystems, Newgrove, Star-Apic, The GeoInformation Group and Victoria Litho.

www.cartography.org.uk

BCS President’s Report November 2012

Dear Members and Fellows,

This is my first monthly bulletin to you as your new President. Peter Jolly started the monthly report and I certainly valued it as a way of keeping in touch with what was going on within the Society and so I intend to continue in this tradition with a few little tweaks of my own.

For those of you who may be relatively new to the Society, or whom I have yet to meet at one of our many functions, I thought you might like to know a little more about me. I have worked for the Ministry of Defence for over 30 years and when I started my career in 1979 I said that when I became fed up with working with maps I would then know that it was time to move on. Well, I am still here and not in the least fed up! Maps have always fascinated me and I can remember at primary school when the class was told they could choose their favourite book for "quiet time" I always reached for an atlas. I have been involved with BCS since 1999 and I have spent the last 4 years as Chair of the Programme Committee. I come to the role of President with a sound grounding in both the Society and its Activities.

Our schools' initiative, "Restless Earth", which began in 2011 following on from a discussion of how best to take mapping out to schools, supports the current geography curriculum and is a very popular workshop for GCSE students. In November we delivered 2 workshops in 3 days, in Altrincham and Fleet and there are a further 6 planned for the remainder of the Academic Year.

http://www.gbsf.org.uk

I am pleased to announce that one of my final achievements as Programme Chair was to secure sponsorship from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation which was established as a result of a visit to London in 1983 by the late Ryoichi Sasakawa. The purpose of his visit was to meet a number of senior British figures to discuss the international situation and, in particular, UK - Japanese relations. 

It was agreed that it would be in the interest of both countries if more could be done to enhance mutual appreciation and understanding of each other's culture, society and achievements. We are delighted to have the Foundation as our prime sponsor for Restless Earth and look forward to working with them in the future.

A recent noteworthy item in the press has been the controversy over Sandy Island. Shown on Google Maps and nautical maps (sic) – I am sure you could hear the hydrographers shouting at the radio report "They're charts, not maps!" – it has been discovered, or rather not discovered, that it doesn't actually exist! Initially it was thought that perhaps it was simply a digitisation error, but it has since been identified on a 1908 chart in an Auckland museum. It has been reported that the island was the result of an error recorded in 1876 by the crew of the Velocity, a whaling ship, who reported a series of "heavy breakers" and some "sandy islets". This highlights the fact that you cannot always believe what you see on a map or a chart!

Sandy Island

This cartographic controversy also emphasises the point that I have made at several events, that cartography is as important now as it has ever been, if not more so in this era of Geographic Information Systems where software packages, designed by IT specialists, freely available on the internet, "make" your map for you with not a cartographic consideration or principle in sight, which can result in very poor quality products that betray the true essence of a good map. The Society needs to ensure that we reinforce the message that good design and presentation will significantly enhance a cartographic product and that bad design can often cast doubt on a perfectly accurate product that simply does not inspire confidence. Of course, the reverse is equally true, but that is another story!

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity in my first President's Bulletin to thank Peter Jolly for his Presidency over the past 2 years. During that time our membership has continued to grow, which is no mean feat in this current climate. He has handed over a flourishing Society and I look forward to all the events planned for our 50th Anniversary in 2013. In advance, I encourage you all to attend as many events as you can as it promises to be a memorable year for The British Cartographic Society.

Best wishes,

Pete Jones MBE, CGeog, FRGS