ICA was founded June 9, 1959, in Bern, Switzerland. Preparatory conferences, during which its foundation was discussed, were held from 1956–1959: the Esselte conference, Stockholm 1956, the Rand McNally conference, Chicago 1957 and the DGfK conference, Mainz (Germany) 1958. The first General Assembly (I) was held in Paris in 1961, that is also when the statutes were accepted. Later conferences were held in:
- Frankfurt am Main, Germany (1962)
- London/Edinburgh, UK (1964) *II
- Amsterdam, Netherlands (1967)
- Delhi, India (1968) *III
- Stresa, Italy (1970)
- Ottawa, Canada (1972) *IV
- Madrid, Spain (1974)
- Moscow, Russia (1976) *V
- College Park MD, USA (1978)
- Tokyo, Japan (1980) *VI
- Warszawa, Poland (1982)
- Perth, Australia (1984) *VII
- Morelia, Mexico (1987) *VIII
- Budapest, Hungary (1989)
- Bournemouth, UK (1991) *IX
- Cologne, Germany (1993)
- Barcelona, Spain (1995) *X
- Stockholm, Sweden (1997)
- Ottawa, Canada (1999) *XI
- Beijing, China (2001)
- Durban, South Africa (2003) *XII
- A Coruña, Spain (2005) *XIII
- Moscow, Russia (2007) *XIV
- Santiago, Chile (2009)
- Paris, France (2011) *XV
- Dresden, Germany (2013)
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2015) *XVI
- Washington D.C., USA (2017)
*XVII
*) also General Assembly, indicated with Roman numerals.