Pre-conference workshops will take place on 8 September 2026, offering participants an opportunity to engage in focused, hands-on sessions before the main conference program begins.
List of workshops
In the list below, you can find all the information for the pre–conference workshops. We will announce workshop registration soon. Details about workshops will be displayed in the „Description“ section.
Share your best tips: Write your own NGC Map Tutorial!
Facilitator: Jakob Listabarth
Contact: TBD
Organisation: ICA Working Group Next Generation Cartographers
Starts at: TBD
Duration: 2 hours
Description (click on the arrow)
Do you have some expertise on certain parts of map-making, or know of a secret hack to create awesome maps? Maybe tips on how to make labels more legible, how to choose accessible fonts for people with dyslexia, how to process certain raster data sets to gain insights or how to create a specific geo-visualisation for the web? Then we would like to offer you to share your knowledge in the form of a Next Generation Cartographers (NGC) map tutorial. At this workshop we will guide you through the process of writing a tutorial: from the ideation to the structure, over the writing to the wrap-up. You can either come with a topic in mind, or we will help you team up with another workshop participant based on your interests.
Registration opens soon
Storytelling with Maps
Facilitator: Mark Wigley, Alex Kent
Contact: TBD
Organisation: Swiss Society of Cartography, British Cartographic Society
Starts at: TBD
Duration: 2 hours
Description (click on the arrow)
This workshop explores how we express and communicate a current issue to a wide audience by visualizing geographical data. After an introductory talk on the implementation of cartographic design principles in data journalism, groups of participants will be given the task of devising a method for mapping a current issue using drawing materials provided. After the activity, participants will be asked to give feedback on their approach and discuss their decisions over the methods of representation chosen. The workshop provides an opportunity to discuss ways of visualizing data within the context of a current issue and does not require technical skills in any particular software. By providing topics instead of data, the workshop is designed to maximise inclusivity (encouraging multinational and transgenerational participation) and allow a greater focus on the process of creativity in exploring approaches to cartographic representation. The resulting maps from the session could be displayed at the main EuroCarto conference, where they would generate considerable interest and discussion.
Registration opens soon
Are Large Language Models Advancing Participatory Mapping?
Facilitator: Jiří Pánek, Lydia Valdesera, Thibaud Chassin
Contact: TBD
Organisation: ICA Working Group on Participatory Mapping
Starts at: TBD
Duration: 3 hours
Description (click on the arrow)
This workshop explores whether and how Large Language Models (LLMs) are reshaping participatory mapping practices–from data collection and community engagement to knowledge co-production and map communication. As conversational AI tools become increasingly accessible, they offer new methodological opportunities while also raising important ethical, epistemological, and practical challenges for researchers working with communities. The session will begin with a series of short lightning talks (5–10 minutes). We particularly encourage PhD students and early-career researchers to share work-in-progress, experimental approaches, or preliminary case studies (submission of a 100-word abstract required). To broaden participation, remote contributions via Zoom will be supported, enabling involvement beyond in-person attendees in Brno. Following the presentations, participants will engage in structured, interactive knowledge exchange. The workshop is informal, discussion-driven, and explicitly output-oriented. It aims to foster critical debate on the role of LLMs in participatory mapping, lay the groundwork for a joint position paper, and identify concrete avenues for future collaboration, including potential research proposals.
Registration opens soon
Cartographic Education and AI: Exploring New Horizons for Teaching and Learning
Facilitator: Juliane Cron, Christoph Traun
Contact: TBD
Organisation: ICA Commission on Education and Training
Starts at: TBD
Duration: 2 hours
Description (click on the arrow)
What should we teach, and how? This interactive workshop explores how cartographic education can engage with the current AI shift in a future-oriented way that is both constructive and critical. It will offer a discussion forum for exchanging perspectives from different educational institutions and for reflecting on how teaching and learning in cartography can evolve.
The workshop will be structured around two perspectives: what to teach and how to teach in times of the AI shift. The “what” group will discuss changing competences and the resulting changes in educational priorities. The “how” group will explore new opportunities for pedagogy, teaching formats, and course design, and reflect on how AI can be meaningfully integrated into learning processes.
We welcome all participants, including educators, students, and others engaged with the future of cartographic education. Perspectives from both educators and students are highly valuable, and we would particularly welcome the voices of students, whose experiences, expectations, and critical reflections are essential for understanding how cartographic education can be meaningfully adapted.
After a short introductory exchange, participants will work in groups to discuss these two perspectives and develop one or two practical ideas for future teaching in cartography. In the final plenary, the groups will present their main insights and ideas and open up a shared discussion on how cartographic education can be shaped in a critical, creative, and sustainable way.
Registration opens soon
From perception to AI automation: How do we visualize in the (rest of) 21st century?
Facilitator: Izabela Gołębiowska, Arzu Çöltekin, Kenneth Field, Ian Muehlenhaus, Anthony Robinson
Contact: TBD
Organisation: ICA Commission on Geovisualization, ICA Commission of Map Design
Starts at: TBD
Duration: 2 hours
Description (click on the arrow)
Workshop aims to discuss current state and perspectives on geovisualization and prompt cartography, with particular attention to how AI shapes cartographic workflow and how human perception is acknowledged in these processes. The workshop is expected to include group work based on assigned prompt cartography tasks, as well as the exchange of experience and discussion between groups, with only limited space devoted to lecture-style session.
Registration opens soon
Atlases as Learning Tools in Higher Education: Concepts and Practice
Facilitator: Mela Žuljević, Eric Losang, Jana Moser, Iaroslav Boretskii
Contact: TBD
Organisation: ICA Working Group on Peace and Conflict Cartography, ICA Commission on Atlases
Starts at: TBD
Duration: 2 hours
Description (click on the arrow)
This joint workshop aims to explore the potential role of atlases as learning tools in higher education by engaging with the productive tensions between different understandings and uses of atlases across disciplines. In particular, we seek to review, discuss, and envision models of atlases that can advance students’ critical, analytical, and creative skills in higher education (e.g., in the political and social sciences and the humanities) through interactive educational formats. Starting from examples introduced by the workshop organisers and participants, the workshop aims to outline how maps and other atlas materials can be operationalised to engage students with critical questions about seeing and representing the world, its regions, and geospatial data. In doing so, it seeks to identify specific directions for translating these critical questions into learning formats, both when conceptualising new (especially digital) atlases and when reactivating existing ones.
By engaging with practical materials and a set of critical questions related to the possible role of atlases in higher education, the workshop also aims to contribute to theoretical discussions on diverse conceptual framings and competing ideas of what an atlas is – or is not. We argue that tensions and contradictions between different disciplinary understandings of atlases render them boundary objects that can provide a fruitful platform for interdisciplinary exchange and critical praxis. In the cartographic and geographic tradition, an atlas is considered a book of maps, a storehouse of geographic information (Monmonier 1981), with a clear taxonomy and structure. However, in the expanded field of visual art and design, there has been a proliferation of thematic, subjective, or research-based atlases, often without a geographic focus, which understand mapping as a strategy to “make the complex accessible” (Abrams and Hall 2006). Such approaches rely less on fixed taxonomy, structure, and sequence; instead, these elements can shift as part of a design process that is often collaborative.
This workshop aims to explore such tensions while focusing on the questions of shared structure and flexible boundaries in relation to atlas taxonomy, sequence and processual character, to articulate potentials of an atlas as an educational and learning tools.
Bibliography
Abrams, J. and Hall, P. 2006. Else/Where: Mapping: New Cartographies of Networks and Territories. University of Minneapolis.
Monmonier, Mark. 1981. “Trends in atlas development”. Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization, 18:2. https://doi.org/10.3138/1572-LG43-R75T-5455
Star, Susan L. 2010. “This is not a boundary object: Reflections on the origin of a concept”. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 35(5), 601–617.
Registration opens soon
Tactile Mapping Workshops
Facilitator: Jakub Wabiński
Contact: TBD
Organisation: ICA Inclusive Cartography Working Group
Starts at: TBD
Duration: 2×3 hours, 1×2 hours
Description (click on the arrow)
TBD
Registration opens soon
What Does The Map Want To Be? Mapping the Personas of Maps
Facilitator: Mihir Desai, Camila Narbaitz Sarsur
Contact: TBD
Organisation: TBD
Starts at: TBD
Duration: 3 hours
Description (click on the arrow)
Cartographic experiences are incomplete without the story of maps which animate the world for us. Animating the inanimate, an act quite often seen as performative or artistic in nature, holds special promise when it comes to disseminating information in cartographic forms. For instance, it is rare that we question the following: Can maps talk to us? Can we talk to a map? Does the map see us? Do maps have personalities?
This workshop, titled ‚What does the Map Want to Be?‘, shall illuminate a history of maps as though they are real actors taking part in cartographic communication. From maps featured in cartoons to chatbots embedded inside maps, from maps embodied as an act upon the self to maps which are imbued with AI reasoning capacities; this workshop shall provide theoretical tools to illustrate the spectrum along which animated map conceptions operate and relate to one another. Theories in literary and observed personification shall be used to investigate the map as a persona.
Registration opens soon
Mapping the Landscape of Virtual Reality in Distance Education
Facilitator: Alžběta Šašinková, Čeněk Šašinka
Contact: TBD
Organisation: Masaryk University
Starts at: TBD
Duration: 2.5 hours
Description (click on the arrow)
This workshop explores the outcomes of the project “The Socio-Motivational Impact of Virtual Reality in Distance Education,” with a special focus on the transformative potential of collaborative virtual environments. Virtual reality introduces a new dimension to learning—one that goes beyond simply engaging with study content. By dissolving physical boundaries, it enables meaningful interaction, shared experiences, and a stronger sense of connection among learners, no matter where they are. Participants will discover how immersive, synthetic environments can reshape distance education into a more engaging, social, and motivating experience.
Registration opens soon
How to Map with Context – A Practitioners’ Workshop
Facilitator: Ester Tamara Scheck
Contact: TBD
Organisation: Technische Universität Wien
Starts at: TBD
Duration: 3 hours
Description (click on the arrow)
Just as every map is based on the mapmaker’s conscious and unconscious decisions, every dataset – the basis of any map – is shaped by its production context. Understanding this context “is essential for conducting accurate, ethical analysis” (D’Ignazio & Klein, 2020, p. 149) because data is never neutral or objective (Dalton & Thatcher, 2014; D’Ignazio & Klein, 2020; Loukissas, 2019). So, what can it look like to research and reflect on the dataset production context as part of the map-making workflow?
In this workshop, we will discuss and explore approaches to doing so by focusing on the perspectives of the participants, of people making maps. Through interactive and creative methods, we will brainstorm relevant aspects and prototype tools that focus on understanding and incorporating the context of data production into the map-making workflow.
The workshop will foster exchange and learning from each other to strengthen responsible and ethical data practices in cartography. The workshop will be documented, and the results will – in aggregated and anonymized form – contribute to Ester Scheck’s doctoral research.
Bibliography:
Dalton, C., & Thatcher, J. (2014). What Does A Critical Data Studies Look Like, And Why Do We Care? https://www.societyandspace.org/articles/what-does-a-critical-data-studies-look-like-and-why-do-we-care
D’Ignazio, C., & Klein, L. F. (2020). Data Feminism. The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11805.001.0001
Loukissas, Y. A. (2019). All data are local: Thinking critically in a data-driven society. The MIT Press.
Registration opens soon
AI for Cartography, Cartography for AI
Facilitator: Karel Staněk
Contact: TBD
Organisation: ICA Commission on Multi-Scale Cartography, DGfK Commission on Cartography and AI
Starts at: TBD
Duration: TBD
Description (click on the arrow)
TBD
Registration opens soon
MentorMatch 2.0: Navigating Careers with Next-Gen Cartographers
Facilitator: Zulfa Nuraini Afifah, Merve Keskin, Juliane Cron, Anthony Robinson
Contact: TBD
Organisation: ICA Working Group Next Generation Cartographers, ICA Commission on User Experience, ICA Commission on Education and Training, ICA Commission on Geovisualization
Starts at: TBD
Duration: 3 hours
Description (click on the arrow)
Following a highly successful first edition (Next Generation Cartographers: ICC 2025 MentorMatch), MentorMatch is coming to a new location for its second round. This interactive mentoring and networking workshop connects aspiring cartographers with experienced mentors through a series of dynamic exchange formats, including speed-mentoring conversations and open-question sessions. Participants will have the chance to discuss career paths, project management, publishing strategies, conference presentations, and personal research visibility. Whether you are seeking practical advice, constructive feedback, or new professional connections, MentorMatch is designed to help you advance your ideas and career. Pre-registration is required to support tailored mentor–mentee matching; registration information and deadlines will be shared soon.
Registration opens soon
Speculative Cartographers and Creative Mapping Futures
Facilitator: Danai-Maria Kontou
Contact: TBD
Organisation: Glasgow University
Starts at: TBD
Duration: 3 hours
Description (click on the arrow)
The workshop introduces participants to a speculative framework; a late Anthropocene world where satellite-based technology and navigation systems are unreliable, landscapes are way more dynamic, and mapping emerges through relational and multi-species practices.
Participants will take part in a series of structured, hands-on exercises:
– Collective world-building: co-creating environmental, social, and infrastructural conditions of the introduced world
– Creative Writing: developing short speculative narratives grounded in their own research interests
– Experimental mapping: translating these narratives into alternative cartographic forms
Aims:
– Explore creative and speculative methods in cartographic research
– Critically reflect on the assumptions of contemporary mapping practices
– Experiment with alternative forms of cartographic representation
Registration opens soon