In September 1996 Clive Baldock and Lars Olsson, whilst attending the European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology (ESTRO) annual meeting in Vienna, Austria initiated the organising of the international conference series on gel dosimetry which began as "DosGel 99", the 1st International Workshop on Radiation Therapy Gel Dosimetry held in Lexington, Kentucky in 1999 and hosted by Geoff Ibbott. Since 1999, subsequent "DosGel" conferences were held in Brisbane, Australia (2001), Ghent, Belgium (2004), Sherbrooke, Canada (2006) and Crete, Greece (2008). In 2010 the conference was held in Hilton Head, South Carolina, USA and underwent a name-change to "IC3DDose". Subsequent "IC3DDose" conferences were held in Sydney, Australia (2012) and Ystad, Sweden (2014). In November 2016, IC3DDose was held in Galveston, Texas, USA. The aim of the first workshop was to bring together individuals, both researchers and users, with an interest in the application of 3-dimensional radiation dosimetry techniques in the treatment of cancer, with a mix of presentations from basic science to clinical applications. This has remained an objective for all of the conferences. One rationale of "DosGel 99" was stated as supporting the increasing clinical implementation of gel dosimetry, as the technique appeared, at that time, to be leaving the laboratories of gel dosimetry enthusiasts and entering clinical practice. Clearly by labelling the first workshop as the 1st, there was a vision of a continuing series, which has been fulfilled. On the other hand, the expectation of widespread clinical use of gel dosimetry has perhaps not been what was hoped for and anticipated. Nevertheless, the rapidly increasing demand for advanced high-precision 3D radiotherapy technology and techniques has continued apace. The need for practical and accurate 3D dosimetry methods for development and quality assurance has only increased. By the 6th meeting, held in South Carolina in 2010, the Conference Scientific Committee recognised the wider developments in 3D systems and methods and decided to widen the scope, whilst keeping the same span from basic science to applications. This was signalled by a change of name from "DosGel" to "IC3DDose", a name that has continued to the latest conference held in Houston in 2016.