June 20, 2013 -- Mapmakers around the world are being encouraged to showcase their talents by entering the British Cartographic Society’s 2013 Map Awards. Open to all professional mapmakers and students the awards celebrate maps created through traditional, modern or experimental techniques. This year’s awards coincide with the Society’s 50th anniversary and the awards ceremony will be held during the British Cartographic Society’s annual Symposium that will be attended by the heads of the five British Mapping and charting agencies as well as several Society Past Presidents.

Mr Peter Jones MBE, President of the British Cartographic Society, comments “The awards programme plays a valuable role in celebrating excellence, inspiring new talent and also stimulating each of us to keep developing and improving our mapping. The awards’ system is designed to encourage entrants from all disciplines in cartography and to highlight advancements and innovation in this dramatically changing field”.

The 2013 British Cartographic Society award categories include: the Stanfords Award for printed mapping; from coffee table atlases to maps featured in leaflets or topical articles, the Avenza Award for electronic mapping; for digital products such as interactive and web maps, the John C. Bartholomew Award for Small Scale Mapping; such as a poster, folded sheet map, atlas or page from a book, the  OS OpenData Award for excellence in cartographic design and the innovative and exciting use of OS OpenData and the National Geographic Society new Mapmaker award; especially aimed at those embarking on their cartographic career.

Award winners will be judged against the other categories for best overall qualities and the top candidate will receive the prestigious honour of being crowned the Best Mapping entry and presented with The British Cartographic Society Award. The deadline for entering is 31st July 2013. Full details of the Map Awards along with entry forms are available at www.cartography.org/awards

Awards will be presented with a trophy at a prestigious black tie ceremony held during the British Cartographic Society’s Annual Symposium at Hothorpe Hall, Leicestershire, from 3rd-6th September 2013. 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. Tickets are available for the Symposium and/or for Awards Dinner at www.cartography.co.uk/symposium

The Symposium is sponsored by Cadcorp, Collins Bartholomew, Esri UK, Leica Geosystems, Newgrove, Ordnance Survey, STAR-APIC and The GeoInformation Group.

To find out more about the British Cartographic Society 2013 follow the Society on: twitter @bcsweb, facebook https://www.facebook.com/bcsweb, lanyrd lanyrd.com/cmyrf or visit the webpage www.cartography.org.uk