A colleague of mine just sent me a link from the Canadian Press.  Most people in the U.S. know we host our summer technology camps at the top universities in the country – Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, UCLA…

As we begin our expansion into Canada, it is interesting to get a lay of the land.  Here’s a quick read on some of the top schools in Canada.  We’ve launched iD Tech Camps at the University of Waterloo.  We’ve also launched the iD Visual Arts Academy at McGill University.

The Canadian Press

Date: Thursday Oct. 8, 2009 5:55 PM ET

TORONTO — The prestigious Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings are out and 11 Canadian universities have made the Top 200 list.

Six Canadian universities have even advanced in their standings over the previous year’s list, with Montreal’s McGill University ranking the highest at number 18.

McGill, which is the only Canadian university in the top 20, was also one of the six Canadian institutions that advanced in its ranking this year over last year’s list.

The University of Toronto was the next highest on the list at number 29, improving from 41st spot last year, while the University of Alberta made a huge leap from 74th spot last year to number 59 this year.

The universities of Waterloo, Calgary and Western Ontario also moved up on the list, with Calgary soaring from 170 to 149.

The other Canadian schools that made the grade were UBC, the Universite de Montreal, Queen’s, McMaster and Simon Fraser.

So, rest assured, when you attend one of our summer programs in Canada, you’ll have the peace-of mind-in knowing that your are not only learning great technologies–but you are doing so at an institution of prominence not only in Canada, but also the rest of the world.

Have a great day!

-Pete

Dear iD Nation,

I want to personally welcome you to the iD Family.  To our returning families, I know you’ve been looking forward to our 2010 launch.  Yesterday we started taking registrations at 8 AM, and the phones were ringing busily all day.  That’s a good sign!  We had  a banner year in 2009, so we think 2010 will be even better.

An obvious question many families are asking is “What’s New?”   I am going to cut and paste some content from our “What’s New” page on our website:

• Digital Catalog – Our summer camp catalog is now available.
• Registration is now live! – Register with our latest promotion and save $100 by 12-15-09.  And when you refer-a-friend, you now save $50 and your friend does too!
• New Locations – New prestigious university locations including the campuses of Harvard, Princeton, Adelphi, Bentley, the expansion of our Teen Academies nationally, and our expansion into Canada.
• New Courses at iD Tech Camps – Awesome new courses include iPhone® App Development, Digital Photography & Photoshop®, RPG Game Design & Graphic Arts Hybrid, Game Modding with titles including Warcraft® III, Starcraft®, Half-Life® 2 and more.  Go to courses and programs.
• Expansion of our Teen Academies – The  iD Programming Academy has expanded to MIT.  The intensive game development program, the iD Gaming Academy has expanded to Chicago and Seattle.  We’ve also launched the new iD Visual Arts Academy. The Teen Academies are for ages 13-18.
• iD 365 – Endless Summer – Upon registration at iD, you now get access to our monthly FREE online workshops, taught year round by live instructors.  More.
• Receive Continuing Education Units from Villanova University or Stanford Continuing Studies.  Details.
• The iD Guarantee – We average 6 students per instructor at iD Tech Camps.  If we exceed an  8:1 ratio, you get to return for a free week of camp at equal value.  It’s that simple!  It’s iD quality.  And it’s only at iD!  Note:  Not valid for Teen Academies. Get details.
• New Games – Hot new commercial gaming titles used in our gaming courses, gaming tournaments and Ultimate Gaming Weekends.
• Learn Valuable “Life Skills” – We’re building new life skills content for this year.  The curriculum will round out the summer experience. See the benefits of iD. We’ve also got fun new camp activities for students.
• Technology Isn’t Just for Boys – We’ve created more courses and modules that are be appealing to girls including Web Design & Flash® Animation, Graphic Design, Video Editing & Special Effects, Digital Photography & Photoshop and the new teen-only  iD Visual Arts Academy.
• Go Green – We continue our iD Greening initiative by promoting carpooling, reducing travel and energy consumption and establishing new outreach partnerships in the communities we serve.
• The Basement.  For Students Only! – Find out what the buzz is about.   Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.  Blogs.  Student Project Uploads.  Camp Photos.  iD 365.  And more.  Head down to the The Basement!

OK, I’m back.  As you can see, we’ve been a bit busy preparing for this launch.  You might expect that we kick back and take a few months off in the Fall, but nothing could be further from the truth.  We’ve got the hardest working crew in the summer camp industry.  We’ve had teams working round the clock to pull all the pieces together…working with new locations (including the expansion of our Teen Academies and a push into Canada), developing curriculum, developing back-end applications, signing contracts, overhauling our website, developing content, designing our camp brochure, working with new corporate partners, creating new courses, and so much more.

The launch is a big, big, team effort, and it is a sign of our company’s organization and dedication to providing the very best.

On behalf of all our employees, we want to welcome you to the new camp season.  We hope you’ll take a few minutes to look around our website.  And, as always, we’re just a phone call away.

Best,

Pete Ingram-Cauchi

CEO, iD Tech Camps

A parent recently posed this question to me:

Dear Pete, I am looking for a comic design camp for my son this summer, 2009. Can you please direct us to somthing in the Pittsburgh or the Philadelphia area of PA. Thank you for your attention to our inquiry. My son attending ID-Tech camp in summer 2007 and loved this course but it does not appear to be offered as of late. Mom in distress…

We do not specifically offer a comic design camp, but we have introduced a couple new courses that might fit the bill this year.  Please check out our Create Your Own Adventures Course as well as our Graphic Arts Course–both are offered at most locations throughout the country, as well as at Carnegie Mellon University and Villanova University which are close to you.

Both courses offer some awesome content using some very relevant and fun platforms.

Hopefully this information helps.  We hope to see you out at our summer camp.

Best,

Pete

iD Nation,

We’re rounding the corner to Summer 2009.  Our camps are thriving right now, and interest is at an all-time high for our summer computer camps.  But what makes a camp unique?  What makes iD Tech Camps unique?  SImply put:  It’s people.  Check out a few of the cool photos from a few of the very cool and creative people that are responsible for bringing iD Tech Camps to you.

A company that celebrates its employees is a company that thrives.

From our team of Regional Managers, Client Services Representatives, Admin folks, Field Services, IT and Marketing…the best team in the camp business is counting down the days until summer.  We are ready for an amazing summer.  Climb aboard!

-Pete

Developing apps and widgets for the iPhone, Facebook, etc. is hot right now.  There is keen interest in developing the skill set to enable the development of these apps.

Our client services department recently received an email from a client looking to register for the iD Programming Academy.  The client wanted to know if the skills learned at our summer camp will be transferable to a MAC working with X-code for the iPhone (specifically developing iApps).

Here is the answer, unedited, from our curriculum developer

Skills learned at iDPA are definitely transferable to X-Code.
The iD Programming Academy curriculum starts off with a brush up of programming basics and
then we jump right into programming of graphical user interfaces using
the Swing framework for Java and/or .NET for C#. Both frameworks are
extremely similar to Apple’s iPhone SDK (software development kit) used
to write iPhone applications on the Mac platform using X-Code. Students
will also learn how to create 3D graphics and animations using OpenGL, a
technology that is also integrated into Apple’s iPhone SDK. In summary,
the iD Programming Academy is the best fit for this student.

The iD Programming Academy is offered at Stanford University, and is almost sold out.
iD Tech Camps also offers programming camps in both C++ and Java at locations across the country.  The goal here is to create the next generation of computer science students.  Have fun.  Get interested.  Learn to program!

Check out all iD Tech Summer Camp Courses by clicking here.

It is always fun to keep tabs on former iD Tech Camps employees. Bryan used to work in accounting, but several of our people still keep in contact with him. It is also a good idea to keep tabs on MC Hammer. It looks like he is doing well.

This is pretty much a random post–although it should be mentioned that the “Can’t Touch This” video blazed the trail with superior cinematography–the kind of music video kids can get a taste for creating in our Digital Video camp course at iD Tech Camps. (The plug had to happen!)

Can’t touch this! Oh oh, oh oh, oh oh…

Bryan hanging with MC Hammer

Don’t get me wrong, I love running summer camps, but my wife gave me the night off last night and I hit Blowfish Sushi with DJ Roque (one of our awesome new client services representatives at iD Tech Camps).

Roque let me take over the tables and taught me a lot about music and the industry.  Heck, we run a summer camp, so I hope I know how to have some fun.  I must say, the crowd was hopping and the transitions were pretty smooth. Roque was nervous at first-especially after about 30 people left the place (it was like a small exodus) but my natural Maltese-Irish-American rhythm was on display and it’s something you either have, or you don’t.  I quickly hit my groove, and even Roque decided to get up and dance.  “Play that funky music, Pete Boy” the crowd chanted.  I turned it up and the rest was history.  Or infamy.

Roque sent out a few pics to the company this AM and here are a few comments.  Thanks for your support, folks.  Based on all the enthusiasm and fan support, you just might find me bringing down the house in a location near you!  It feels good to be the first CEO / DJ ever at Blowfish Sushi.  We did make history.

“We need this on the blog, this is awesome!! Great pic!”

“Get down Pete! You look like a natural!”

“DJ PETE ROCK specializes in providing professional services for a variety of special events from Wedding Receptions, School Dances, Corporate Events & Private Parties!”

“So I guess this means you’ll be officiating, cooking and dj-ing at our wedding. Sweet! What other hidden talents do you have that I can utilize?”

“And Barack thought he was cool! Ha!”

“Did you just get out of jail?”

“Who dresses you?”

“You are totally faking it.”

“When you started, there were 100 people on the dance floor.  Three minutes into it, I thought they had closed the club.  But the cleaning crew appreciated getting out of there early.”

It is all about the Facial Expressions

You got it or you don't

]]> http://www.internaldrive.com/2009/04/10/dj-pete-rock-in-da-house/feed/ 13 http://www.internaldrive.com/2009/03/17/happy-st-patricks-day-from-id-tech-camps/ http://www.internaldrive.com/2009/03/17/happy-st-patricks-day-from-id-tech-camps/#comments Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:42:04 +0000 Pete http://www.internaldrive.com/?p=21472

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Nina started the day off right by playing a jig/reel every hour on the hour from the hallway. You should have heard this place! The only time things went silent today was when Nina had to sneak off to the dentist.

Nina playing a jig

Not to be outdone, we had two of iD Tech Camps new Client Services representatives get into the spirit as well! Side note, I checked back in with them at 4:45PM today and they still had their hats on. Good stuff, guys! This proves you can work, have fun, and still run the best summer computer camps in the country. Keep it up team!

The CS Team is into it!

Janine and Roque showing their spirit

Media Contacts:

iD Tech Camps: Karen Thurm Safran, 408-666-8353

For Immediate Release

Choosing a Summer Camp? Bet on Quality this Year

The summer camp industry, like the rest of the country, is facing serious challenges this year. Choosing the right camp can be grueling for parents and kids alike. The good news is there are thousands of camps out there, seemingly a buffet of options that meet every need, fill every niche, and can accommodate most any budget. Video Game Camp? Check. Golf Camp? Check. Technology Camp? Spanish Camp? Day Camp? Sleep Away Camp? Check, check, check and check.

Two of the country’s largest summer camp operators are headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. US Sports Camps, the official operator of NIKE Sports Camps, is headquartered in San Rafael, California. The camp offers hundreds of programs nationwide. iD Tech Camps, headquartered about an hour south in the Silicon Valley, runs its summer camps at over 60 prestigious universities nationwide including Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA and MIT. The company teaches technologies from Adobe®, Apple®, Microsoft® and others. These two camp businesses have been running summer camps for over thirty and ten years, respectively.

The president of US Sports Camps, Steve Pence, and the president of iD Tech Camps, Pete Ingram-Cauchi, meet a couple times a year over lunch at Perry’s in San Francisco. They compare notes and industry trends.

Ingram-Cauchi, obligatory Blackberry in hand, commented, “To our surprise, this year is actually shaping up to be better than we had hoped. We’re seeing growth at almost all locations. Parents want to give their kids a leg up—and camp is a definite way to do that.”

Pence, dressed in his Nike golf polo, had a similar upbeat response. “We’ve been running camps for over 30 years. “We’re seeing a strong trend in registrations. Parents want quality, and that’s why they look for camps with established track records.”

In difficult economic times, both Ingram-Cauchi and Pence are betting that there will be a flight to quality, just like many investors are betting on the big blue chip companies that have longstanding track records.

The summer camp industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, but many small camp operators are bracing for a tough year. Clearly, there is debate out there as to just how discretionary summer camps are in a family’s budget.

“We think parents want to invest in their kids, and they want the best programs out there,” said Ingram-Cauchi. “Summer camps, by nature, are an investment in the future. Kids learn new skills. It’s one of the last things to cut from the budget. “ But Ingram-Cauchi is still trying to get creative and be sensitive to the fact that a lot of families are tightening their belts. One of the things iD Tech Camps has done is to allow parents to pay a $200 deposit, as opposed to asking for all the tuition up front. “This allows parents to spread the cost of camp out over several months. This has been very well received,” said Ingram-Cauchi. Mr. Pence is doing something similar by offering a $250 deposit option.

Across the street from iD Tech Camps is a smaller camp operator called “Let’s Play in Spanish.” The camp, operated by Chris and Susy Dorn, has built a loyal following by offering great service and a unique offering. “We can’t complain about our numbers,” said Dorn. “Parents know we’ve been around awhile—and that means something right now. Nobody wants to waste money.”

The three camp operators are clearly engaged in the camp microcosm. “We’re in the greatest industry in the world, “said Mr. Pence. “We impact the future.”

The optimism on display with these three summer camp operators is palpable. When you talk to them, you get the sense that better days are just around the corner. That’s welcome news against the constant backdrop of negative economic information.

About iD Tech Camps

iD Tech Camps, www.internalDrive.com, headquartered in Campbell, California (in the Silicon Valley), is America’s Largest Technology Camp and teaches technologies from Adobe, Apple, Microsoft and others, to ages 7-18 . It was founded in 1999 with the mission of delivering the finest technology instruction to young students at America’s finest colleges and universities, including Stanford, UCLA, MIT and UT Austin. During the summer of 2008, more than 15,000 campers attended iD Tech Camps at 50 locations nationwide. The company also provides three teen programs: iD Gaming Academy, iD Film Academy and iD Programming Academy.

About US Sports Camps

US Sports Camps (USSC), www.USSportsCamps.com, headquartered in San Rafael, California (just north of San Francisco), is America’s Largest Sports Camp Network and the licensed operator of The NIKE Sports Camps. It was started in 1975 with the same mission that defines it today: to shape a lifelong enjoyment of athletics through high quality sports education and skill enhancement. By partnering with the country’s best coaches to direct our camps and by providing them with valuable administrative and marketing support, USSC has become the largest and most successful sports camp operator in America. During the summer of 2008 more than 52,000 campers attended US Sports Camps at 400 locations nationwide.

Hello iD Nation,

It’s Big Pete!  Yesterday I had the chance to head to the User-Generated Content Conference in Silicon Valley at the San Jose Convention Center.  I went with two colleagues.   If you think of companies like Facebook or MySpace or YouTube…or Craig’sList, then you actually have an idea of what user-generated content is.  In a nutshell, it is about letting the customers choose and decide what is important and relevant.

Social Media Conference

I took these pics on my new Blackberry curve (Nextel service).  So, the pictures aren’t all that hot.  While I’m at it, if I can ask Nextel to upgrade their network, it would be much appreciated.  I drive all over the Valley (always hands free!) and there are more dead zones than anyone should have to take.  The walkie talkie feature on the phones is awesome for communicating with our summer camp staff, but the Nextel network is spotty and it’s been that way forever.  Help!

OK, back to the conference.  We got to hear Craig Newmark (Craig’s List Co-Founder) speak.  I even snapped a few low-quality photos of the outing.

Pete and Craig. Good buddies!

That’s Craig in the background.  You can tell we are highly engaged in conversation!  OK, all joking aside, Craig was a pretty cool cat.  He is a nerd, and proud of it.  But he is sincere, and he had some good reminders and lessons.  Here are a few of the things I plucked from his talk:

Fun Facts about Craig’s List:

Craig’s List started in 1994/1994 as an email list serve.

The company started from Craig’s living room in San Francisco.

Today, the site attracts 50 million unique visitors per month and 13 billion page views per month.  Wow!

The company is a combination of a business and a community service.  It is an interesting hybrid.

To Craig, the internet = inclusion.  It is the biggest tent possible.

Craig’s secret for success?

Ask for feedback.

Listen to it.

Do something with the feedback.

Repeat.

Did you know that Craig spends 50% of his time in customer service?  Why?  So he can listen to feedback and hear what the customers have to say.  It seems so basic, doesn’t it?  He said one of the hardest things to do is to follow through with good customer service.  But, once you master it, you need to do it even better.  Keep improving.

Another lesson he preached was “getting out of the way.”  He had several examples of how he and his team stepped to the side and allowed the Craig’s List users to lead the way–even if it meant the business had to flex and change.

Finally, Craig talked a lot about creating a “culture of trust.”  He said “you don’t need surveys if you are listening carefully.”  This is an interesting point.  He wants to make sure his site is simple and fast (hence the spartan design and layout) and he wants to make sure it works.

It was a pleasure to meet Craig yesterday.  He is pretty unassuming–but very smart and he is actually funny, despite what he says about himself.

Craig Answering Questions

At iD Tech Camps, we use Craig’s List quite a bit for recruiting.  It is nice to know the man behind the list is real and genuine.

Until Next Time, Live Long and Prosper!

-Pete