Technology

If you've ever filmed a staff training video and then realized you said "um" forty-seven times, this post is for you. Video has become essential for camp operations. We use it for staff training, parent communication, marketing, and documenting everything from emergency procedures to activity instructions. The problem? Creating professional video traditionally required expensive equipment, editing skills most of us don't have, and hours we don't have either. This week I'm loo

If you run a camp, you know the off-season is when the real planning happens. Staff schedules, program development, marketing campaigns, parent communications. The to-do list never stops growing. This week I'm looking at two AI tools that tackle different parts of that workload. ClickUp AI helps you manage projects and keep your team organized. Pictory turns your written content into videos without a film crew. Both are designed to save time, but they work in very different w

Camp directors spend a surprising amount of time in meetings. Board meetings, staff meetings, parent conferences, vendor calls. And after each one, there's the scramble to remember what was said, who committed to what, and where you put those notes from last month. This week I'm looking at two AI tools that tackle information overload from different angles. Fathom records and summarizes your meetings so you can actually be present in the conversation. NotebookLM turns your do

For decades, we told young people the same thing: learn the hard skills. Master calculus. Write code. Memorize facts. The soft skills, we said, were nice to have. Frosting on the cake. The AI revolution has flipped the table. Algorithms can now perform those hard skills faster, cheaper, and more accurately than any human. But an algorithm cannot read a room. It cannot navigate a complex political conflict. It cannot rally a team after a failure or build trust with a skeptical

Every camp director I know has the same complaint: there's never enough time. Between parent emails, staff training materials, board presentations, and the actual work of running a program, the hours disappear faster than bug spray in July. This week I'm looking at two tools that tackle this problem from opposite angles. Genspark is an AI workspace that helps you create almost anything you need, from slide decks to research reports to videos. Reclaim AI takes a different appr

Every camp has moments that require professional polish on a tight timeline. Maybe you're launching a new specialty program and need a logo by next week. Or you just finished a two-hour board meeting and realize nobody took notes. These are the kinds of problems that used to require hiring outside help or hoping someone on staff had hidden talents. This week, I tested two AI tools that tackle very different challenges: Looka for brand design and Otter AI for meeting documenta

Running a camp means wearing a dozen hats before lunch. You're answering parent emails, scheduling staff meetings, updating the website, and somehow still trying to remember what was decided in yesterday's leadership huddle. This week I'm looking at two AI tools that tackle different parts of this chaos. Lindy AI is an automation platform that can handle repetitive tasks across your apps. Granola is a meeting note-taker that works without the awkwardness of a bot joining your

Two tools that could save you hours every week. If you're like most camp directors, your to-do list is a living document that grows faster than you can check things off. And somewhere on that list, probably near the bottom where it's been sitting for months, is something like "post more on social media" or "finally get organized." This week, I'm reviewing two AI tools that tackle those exact problems. Quso.ai turns your long videos into short, shareable clips for social medi

You need AI tools that work for your camp. Three companies now offer AI assistants capable of writing emails, drafting schedules, creating training materials, and more. Each tool has strengths and weaknesses. This guide breaks down Claude Opus 4.5 from Anthropic, GPT-5.2 from OpenAI, and Gemini 3 from Google. After reading this, you will know which AI fits your specific needs. The Three Models at a Glance Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.5 on November 24, 2025. OpenAI launche

Starting your AI journey doesn't require learning entirely new platforms or overhauling your tech stack. Google has been quietly integrating powerful AI features into tools you already use every week: Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Drive, Meet, and NotebookLM. You don't need new platforms to start. You need clear use cases and simple routines. Today's focus is on six Google AI applications at the "application layer." These are tools you touch regularly. Your team knows them. AI sits on

This week brought steady movement across the major AI labs. The updates from OpenAI, Google, Meta, Anthropic, and Microsoft point toward a clear direction. Tools are becoming faster, more affordable, more controlled, and more grounded in safety. These shifts matter for camps because your teams depend on clarity, reliability, and trust when using new systems. Have you noticed how AI conversations have shifted from "Will this work?" to "How do we use this safely?" That's exactl

Ever feel like your camp office is drowning in scattered notes, endless drafts, and routine planning tasks? You're not alone. Most camp offices lose hours each week to the same repetitive work that could be streamlined with the right tools. This week, we're diving into two game-changing tools that can transform how you handle daily operations. Taskade helps you organize and plan with AI-powered structure, while Gemini Tasks speeds up writing and editing inside Google Workspac

This week marked one of the busiest stretches in AI news since early fall. Major platforms released new features. Analysts published adoption reports that caught everyone's attention. School districts and youth programs announced shifts in how they use automation that will ripple through our industry. These stories give you a clear view of where technology is heading and how it will shape camp operations in 2026 and beyond. AI growth affects how families think about safety, c

This week's national news highlighted something interesting: small and mid-sized organizations are adopting AI tools faster than anyone expected. Companies with fewer than 100 employees reported the biggest growth in AI projects, especially for documentation, summarization, and information management. Sound familiar? That's exactly where camps live. You run hundreds of meetings during the off-season. You create training materials, safety protocols, parent communication script

Welcome to your weekly AI roundup designed specifically for camp professionals. This week delivered some of the biggest AI announcements we've seen all year, and several of these developments will directly impact how you run your camp next summer. Let's dive into what happened and what it means for your day-to-day operations. The Week's Headline News Google dominated this week's AI news with the release of Gemini 3.0, which immediately shot to the top of major AI benchmarks

Technology moves fast, but camp moves faster. Between staff training deadlines, parent communications, and program prep, you need tools that work immediately without requiring a computer science degree. This week brought major updates to two AI tools that can transform how you build training materials, strengthen communication, and support program design. Both Claude Artifacts and Runway received significant improvements that push them into the category of tools you can actua

This week's AI stories all pointed in one direction: the world is moving faster. Tools are getting smarter. Risks are growing. Leaders everywhere are trying to make sense of what this pace means for their work and communities. Camps feel these shifts even when they seem far away. When the outside world speeds up, camp leaders need to respond with steady hands. You work with children, families, and young staff who live in the center of this technological change. You guide them

Picture this: It's 9 PM on a Tuesday in March, and you're still at your desk, scrolling through endless Google results trying to find reliable information about new state regulations for summer camps. Sound familiar? Or maybe you're that director who's been searching for the perfect background music for your welcome video for three hours, and nothing feels quite right. Today's AI in Action feature tackles exactly these scenarios with two tools that can transform how you handl

Covering developments from November 2 → November 8 As your camp gears up for another season of planning, staffing, and creating those magical moments that help kids grow into confident problem-solvers, the AI landscape keeps shifting in ways that actually matter for your daily operations. This week brought some significant changes that could impact how you communicate with parents, train your staff, and manage the countless details that make camp run smoothly. Let's break dow

The best camp leaders know something their peers are still figuring out: the hours you spend clicking, forwarding, and typing are hours you're not coaching, mentoring, or connecting with your team and campers. Think about your typical Tuesday. How much time did you spend manually forwarding registration emails, copying information between spreadsheets, or frantically taking notes during that important staff meeting? If you're like most camp professionals, it's probably more t