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

Most of our summer camp locations are in session this week, so let’s look at some photos! This week’s theme was “Products, Hardware and Software.” We looked through the many photos on http://www.internaldrive.com/photos and are pleased to announce this week’s photo-of-the-week winners. Thanks for taking the time to take great photos and portraying what our summer camps for kids and teens are truly like!

This summer day camp student shows off his camera skills at UCLA.

Ninja versus Ninja^TM at our UT Austin summer camp.

Web Design & Flash Animation with Wacom® Pen Tablets at Ohio State.

Game Modding with Warcraft® III at the Villanova Gaming Academy.

Camp activities include Apples to Apples at Rollins College.

Looking up from her Dell Computer at our Santa Clara summer camp.

Working with Adobe® Illustrator® CS4 at Sacred Heart University.

Outdoor summer camp activities at UC Irvine.

Vex® Robotics at our MIT summer camp.

Excited over his Spore^TM creature at our University of Washington camp.<-->

Summer camp is in full swing and it’s time to look at some more photos! This week’s theme was “University & Dorm Shots.” We looked through the many photos on http://www.internaldrive.com/photos and are pleased to announce this week’s photo-of-the-week winners. Thanks for taking the time to take great photos and for painting the picture of what our summer camps for kids and teens are truly like! Enjoy these photos!

Technology Fun in the Sun at Arizona State University

Future Techies of the world at Southern Methodist University

Wild Computer Campers at Emory University

UC San Diego Campers Create High Tech Fun

UC Santa Cruz  Surf & Tech Camp- How’s that for a classroom

Ohio State University Video Game Summer Camp

Smith College Let the Gaming Begin

UNC- Chapel Hill Gearing up for Gaming Camp

Purdue University Technology Time for High Tech Campers

University of Virginia Computer Campers on the move to do something BIG

The Potpourri Tomball

As appeared in the The Potpourri Tomball June 2009
While peers play games, 6th grader creates them in summer camp
By Anna Schuman

Northpointe Intermediate student Gabe Shah is creating a 15-level multi-player Mario computer game in his iD Tech camp.

When Gabe Shah returns to school in August, his friends might tell stories of places they visited in the summer, of sites they’ve seen, of games they’ve played, but few can say they have done what the 11-year-old has.

The soon-to-be sixth grader at Northpointe Intermediate said he wishes he could spend all day every day at iD Tech Camp, held at the University of Houston. In just a few days, he has learned to create, and has completed, his very own 15-level, multiplayer “Mario” computer game.

An avid game player, Shah has had his sights set on becoming a game maker and working for Jagex Games, an independent game publisher and developer based in England. He, like many of his peers, was already familiar with playing games, but now he knows how to make them as well.

Creating games, he said, takes a lot of creativity. He was given few guidelines about the type of game to create, so most of it is straight from his imagination. Not only do he and his fellow campers leave at the end of the week knowing they were able to create something, they get to take their game home with them.

“It’d really be cool if my friends could play my game, and think it’s really cool, then they can ask where I got it and I can say I made it,” he said. “I’m the only one who can say they’ve made their own game.”

Students like Shah, ranging in age from 7 to 18, can participate in iD Tech’s gaming, film and programming camps nationwide. Some students travel across the country to go to the camps, others from across the world.

Anela Wenger, the camp director at U of H, said one of Shah’s fellow campers flew in from Japan for two weeks to participate in the camp in Houston. Wenger said she believes the popularity, though Houston is one of the smaller camps, is due to the program’s reputation.

“Some people might be skeptical to send their kids to a camp where they play video games all day,” she said. “Yeah, they do play games, but here they create the games.”

An educator by profession, Wenger said she is amazed by the focus the campers have when they start their projects. When they are doing other camp activities, indoors and outdoors, and even during lunch, campers ask if they can go back to work on their projects.

There’s more to what the campers learn than just how to program computers, design and create games, she said. They also learn great problem-solving skills through the medium of game creation.

Shah plans to return to the camp each year, taking different classes at different levels, learning everything he can, and hopes to one day be among the college and graduate students who teach the camp classes.

He said people might think of people who love computers as nerdy, but he wants people to remember how Bill Gates got his start, and said he and future campers might be among the next Albert Einsteins and Bill Gates’ of the world. Until then, he plans to spread the word about his favorite camp and the importance of computers to everyone.

“They always say reading, writing and math are what you need to know, but I think everyone should know computers these days,” he said. “Kids don’t have to love computers to come to this camp, but I bet they will when they leave.”
Share the Experience

iD Tech Camps run at the University of Houston through July 24. For more information or to reserve your spot, go to www.internalDrive.com.

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

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.

Following up on our previous “Do Something Big” post about our camper-turned-programming-prodigy, Ian Cinnamon, let’s take a closer look at another iD Alumni that has gone on to do big things after camp – Annie Evans!

Proving that girls can rock in the field of science and technology, Annie started at iD Tech Camps as a student, then became an instructor and is now a technology teacher in her home state of Colorado! She is starting her own technology cycle with her students now. There’s no telling what her students (both at camp and at her school) will accomplish with an inspirational mentor like Annie and their new knowledge of technology.

We sat down with Annie to talk about her passion for technology and experiences at iD. Here’s an excerpt from our interview with Annie:

iD: What made you want to attend iD – and then work for iD?

Annie: When I was in middle school, I loved acting and was very creative. As a camper, I attended the digital video course at iD Tech Camps and loved it so much that I signed up for web design too! It was a great fit for me when I was younger, because I could be so creative while learning practical skills! Now, I love computers and I love teaching, so iD is a perfect fit!

iD: What are your favorite things about our summer camp?

Annie: I love everything about camp! I love teaching in such a fun and goofy environment. There is a perfect balance between having fun and being safe. iD Tech does such a great job training, so I always know how to handle various situations.

iD: Is iD Tech Camps a good place for girls to attend? Why?

Annie: iD Tech is a great place for girls (and boys, of course)! There are so many opportunities to be creative with computers. It’s also a great way to meet friends and learn about computer-related careers.

iD: How has iD inspired you?

Annie: When I first started instructing at iD Tech, I was studying computer science and planning to go into software development. I knew I enjoyed teaching, but I didn’t realize that I LOVE teaching until camp! It completely changed my career path. Camp has also inspired me to be the very best teacher and person possible. iD Tech creates an atmosphere of high expectations. I feel motivated, but never pushed and it brings out the best in me.

Check out the full interview with Annie by clicking here.

iD Tech Camps inspires kids and teens to take what they learn and experience at summer camp and apply it to their future, just like Annie. She’s spreading her love of technology to her students-something we’re very proud of! Keep up the great work Annie; we can’t wait to have you back at camp this summer!

Find out more about the courses Annie taught and the locations she worked at – this could be your chance to do something big with your summer!