The fountain head of the river that we now call the Institute of Quantity Surveyors Sri Lanka was the Seminar on Surveying and Land Economy in Sri Lanka held at the BMICH in October 1974. The Seminar was organized by the Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy (CASLE).This three day Seminar approved a resolution moved by Mr. James Nisbet FRICS, which stated "Bearing in mind the importance of the construction industry to the social and economic development of Sri Lanka, the Seminar urges the quantity surveying practitioners to ensure without delay the provision of proper education and training facilities for quantity surveyors and quantity surveying technicians at the universities and technical institutions".

There were only five professionally qualified quantity surveyors in Sri Lanka at that time namely, late Professor H. P. S. Caldera, Mr. Prasad Senarathne, Mr. S. Pulendran, Mr. T. P. Miskin and Mr. H. D. Chandrasena. All of them actively assisted the main organizer of the Seminar, the Surveyors Institute of Sri Lanka.