MapAction has been using QGIS for the past five years or so as its principal training tool when working with humanitarian agencies in a number of countries affected by humanitarian disaster and conflict. This talk will focus on the training and preparedness work that MapAction has carried out with QGIS, reflecting on the experience of using QGIS, describing the methods it has employed to work with both GIS professionals and staff new to GIS, and what has been learned in the process. This will include some discussion of what has been successful and less successful, and how the use of mapping and GIS in humanitarian response can be encouraged and supported in the long term. There will also be examples of QGIS products and implementation by other organisations, with a view to identifying best practice and the means of disseminating this in the humanitarian information management community.