The Game Design Lab: Forge Your Next Camp Classic
2026-03-10 15:15 - 16:15 (America/Los_Angeles) | Room 404
Is your special event calendar in need of a creative spark? Move beyond the traditional and learn to engineer unforgettable moments for your campers. This highly interactive session is a hands-on design lab where you won’t just learn theory, you’ll build a new game from the ground up.
As a facilitator, Luis will share his proven Experience Design process, challenging you to think outside the box and rapidly develop a unique activity in real-time. You’ll collaborate with peers in a dynamic, creative sprint. Participants will leave this session with a step-by-step creative framework to design impactful activities, the skills and confidence to facilitate this process with your own staff, and a brand-new, ready-to-play game designed by YOU for the summer!

Universal Values: How Camps Can Evaluate and Elevate Their Entire Staffing Cycle
2026-03-10 15:15 - 16:15 | Room 303
As the staff experience continues to be put under a microscope, are camps doing enough to ensure that the expectations they set align with the realities their staff face? This session shares a new model camps can adopt to reshape their entire staffing process and provides tangible tips and tools camps can use to evaluate and level-up their interviews, onboarding/orientation, feedback systems, and how they can integrate each of these pieces of the puzzle into their overall staff culture. This session will focus on restructuring a camp’s entire staffing cycle, and will focus on what camps can do AFTER summer 2026, and how they can utilize their 2026 staff to help set the stage for the future, helping create buy-in and accountability for the summer ahead.

Mosquitoes at Camp: Prevention, Protection, and Peace of Mind
2026-03-10 15:15 - 16:15 | Room 316
Mosquitoes are more than just a nuisance; they’re a public health concern that every camp should take seriously. In this session, Michael Hoban from New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Mosquito Control Coordination will discuss practical strategies to reduce mosquito presence and protect campers and staff. Drawing on his experience in statewide mosquito surveillance and control, he will cover prevention techniques, how to identify common breeding sites, and the science behind effective control methods. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how to work with local mosquito control programs to create a safer, more enjoyable camp experience. All in all, offering prevention, protection, and peace of mind.

Energize Your Orientation
2026-03-10 15:15 - 16:15 | Room 202
Every year it’s the same challenge: with everything else going on, how do you plan and implement an orientation or kickoff event that sets the tone for a successful season and inspires your staff? We’ve got you covered. Get ready to channel your inner child and play like you’re back at camp!
Since 1996, Playworks has been the leading national organization leveraging the power of play to build staff capacity, promote community, and shape organizational culture. Through engaging activities, we will teach you actionable strategies and systems to manage large groups, resolve conflict, and build valuable social and emotional skills for the kids you work with. You’ll walk away with tangible skills that can be immediately applied to your orientation plans.
Lets get everyone at your camp sharing laughs, ideas, and unforgettable experiences that will prepare them for the best season yet.

It's Not Laziness, It's Development: Understanding the Needs of Young Staff
2026-03-10 15:15 - 16:15 | Room 415
Camp staff are still developing the executive functioning skills that help adults stay organized, flexible, and emotionally regulated. What may look like laziness, defiance, or carelessness is often a skill gap, not a character flaw. In this session, Rachel Hoffman reframes common staff challenges through a developmental lens and helps camp leadership move from frustration to understanding. Participants will learn how to coach instead of criticize-unlocking potential, building accountability, and strengthening camp culture.

What is ACA Doing in Washington DC, and How Can My Camp Benefit?
2026-03-10 15:15 - 16:15 | Room 322
Come hear about ACA’s ongoing and ever-increasing work in DC and how you can support our advocacy efforts! Current hot topics include protecting the Bridge USA J-1 Visa programs, maintaining our federal wage and overtime exemptions, the tax deductibility of staff meals, ensuring access to federal lands, insurance availability and affordability, and other important federal matters. We will also discuss ACA’s work to build a Camp Caucus on Capitol Hill, as well as our upcoming Hill Days from April 28-30.

Infusing Character into Camp: It Starts with the Staff
2026-03-10 15:15 - 16:15 | Room 419
This workshop explores the magic that happens when character is infused throughout camp with intentionality and within a structured framework that supports everyone’s leadership, seasonal staff, campers, and parents.
The School Culture and Climate Initiative team will guide you through the benefits of integrating a character focus throughout camp, what intentionality truly means, and how to make this a reality. You’ll see specific examples of applying an intentional framework, including the best ways to ensure seasonal staff and camp leadership are on the same page and walking the talk consistently.
Leave with a clear picture of what this looks like at your camp and practical tools to implement immediately.

Write the Story of Camp: Great Newsletters Driving Enrollment and Connection
2026-03-10 15:15 - 16:15 | Room 310
Most camps send newsletters because they feel they have to. But for many families, those emails go unopened, or even worse, ignored.
Parents don’t tend to buy “magic” or “home.” They buy the stories and details that make camp feel real for them and for their camper.
In this interactive workshop, we’ll show you how to turn small camp moments into stories that families actually read and remember. You’ll see how we transform moments at camp into polished newsletter drafts in real time and then practice doing it yourself.
By the end, you’ll leave with the bones of at least one draft ready to send, plus a framework you can use all year to grow enrollment, deepen family connection, trust, and bring the stories of your camp to inboxes everywhere.

Big Magic in Small Spaces: Creating Collective Effervescence at Urban Day Camps
2026-03-10 15:15 - 16:15 | Room 416
You don’t need a ropes course, fireworks show, or camp-wide color war to create unforgettable energy and community at day camp. In this session, we’ll explore how urban day camps can foster collective effervescence—that electric feeling of shared joy and connection that makes campers feel part of something bigger—using limited space, time, and resources.
Participants will learn how to design special events and camp moments that capture that same magic typically found at sleepaway camps through intentional planning, storytelling, rituals, and playful design. We’ll share strategies and examples from Kids in the Game’s NYC-based programs, where schools, rooftops, and playgrounds transform into spaces of pure camp spirit.

Steal These Ideas to Level Up Your Camp
2026-03-10 15:15 - 16:15 | Room 308
Great camps don’t reinvent the wheel, they learn from what’s working elsewhere, adapt it to their own context, and make it part of their culture. In this session, two camp pros from differently sized organizations will share 10 high-impact, field-tested ideas that spark results across camps of all shapes and stages. From purposeful program design and staff retention strategies to parent communication, community-based marketing, and smart operational systems, each idea is designed to be stolen, stretched, and scaled. Walk away with practical, adaptable strategies you can put into action this summer and beyond.

Discussion of Camp Referral Service Commissions & Suggested Best Practices: Follow-Up from Tri-State 2025
2026-03-10 15:15 - 16:15 | Room 402
An open meeting of Camp Directors and top leadership staff for a positive, constructive conversation about how to handle requests for increases in referral service fees, along with suggestions for best practices to recommend to the referral services for consideration. Camp Directors and top camp leadership staff only, please.

Shop and Schmooze with Our Vendors!
2026-03-10 16:30 - 17:30 | Vendor Hall
Join us in the exhibit hall for an hour of unopposed time to shop and schmooze with our 320+ exhibitors. Have a snack at a food vendors booth, try your hand at one of the many games or attractions, swing on a Ninja Warrior Course rig, create at one of the many arts & craft vendors’ booths, and get your vendor “passport” stamped for your chance to win $250*!
*Raffle winner will be announced on Wednesday, March 11th at 4:55 pm back in the exhibit hall. Must be present to win.

2SLGBTQIA+ Camp Professionals Meet and Greet
2026-03-10 16:30 - 17:30 | Room 403

Special Needs Camps Meet and Greet
2026-03-10 16:30 - 17:30 | Room 415

YMCA Camps Meet and Greet
2026-03-10 16:30 - 17:30 | Room 402

ACA Keystone Gathering
2026-03-10 16:30 - 17:30 | Room 411/412

Fast Solutions, Fun Process: Solve Your Challenges Now with a Great Group Problem-Solving Method
2026-03-10 16:30 - 17:45 | Room 303
Please join us for our annual blast of learning and fun connection! Tri-State is delighted to continue this unique way to learn at Conference and meet other people. Top camp expert and staff trainer Michael Brandwein leads this special hands-on session in which he will teach you the Consultative Problem-Solving Process. This is an enjoyable, highly effective, incredibly efficient group learning technique that you can learn immediately and helps you get great ideas today, right in this session, working with colleagues to solve the greatest camp challenges you’re facing at your specific camp. You’ll walk out with lots of notes on how to handle a challenge of your choice. And Michael will show you how you can use this same process back at your camp, not only with staff but with campers, too. And wait-there’s more! You’ll meet lots of new camp friends at Conference, so this is a great way to build your own community of supportive folks you can hang with and learn from throughout Tri-State.

Swords & Sheilds: A Wayfinder Mini LARP for All Levels
2026-03-10 16:30 - 17:45 | Room 201
No experience necessary. Come experience an immersive LARP for yourself! We will lead a mini version of what you would experience at our camps as we take you through the character creation process of a classic Fantasy LARP. You will don a costume, take on a new persona, and meet characters presenting you with challenges! Should you complete all three, you will have an opportunity to request a boon from the local monarchs! But that can’t be all, oh no, stay to the end for the twist and try to help your comrades save the day!

Girl Scout Gathering
2026-03-10 18:00 - 19:30 | Room 418

Social at the Arcade
2026-03-10 18:00 - 19:30
Join fellow attendees for a FREE fun-filled event sponsored by Dave & Buster’s. What better way to unwind after a day of learning then with, networking with a side of skee ball, a free appetizer buffet and a $10 play card all await you. Must bring badge to be eligible for free play card and to gain access to the appetizer buffet.

Camp Idol
2026-03-10 20:45 - 23:59 | The Royce Social Hall, 2801 Pacific Ave #304, Atlantic City, NJ, 08401
Camp Idol is a free-to-attend social during the Tri-State Camp Conference at The Royce Social Hall in the Tropicana on Tuesday, March 10th, from 8:45 PM – 11:45 PM.
One after another, camp professionals will take the stage with a live backing band to perform songs of their choosing; Think karaoke meets summer camp talent show meets concert.
Throughout the night, performers will go head-to-head in a friendly competition judged by a panel and the crowd, with prizes awarded to the top acts.
Attendees can enjoy live music, bar games like bowling, ping pong, and foosball, plus a 50/50 raffle benefiting SCOPE. It’s an inclusive, multi-generational, community-building night that brings the camp world together in the best way possible!
Please note the ACA, NY &NJ is not responsible for this event and has no decision making authority.

5K Fun Run
2026-03-11 07:15 - 08:00
Join us for our annual 5k Run/Walk benefitting SCOPE. Walk, run, jog or skip, however you want to finish is up to you, but it is always a great time on the boardwalk of Atlantic City!
It will start at 7:15am on the Boardwalk outside of Bally’s (near the LARGE Wagon Wheel). Please arrive a bit before 7:15am to get stretched and ready to go. It is usually windy so please dress warmly!
Entry fee is $10 and all proceeds benefit our friends at SCOPE.

Foundations of a Strong Camp Marketing Plan
2026-03-11 08:30 - 09:30 | Room 301
Creating an effective camp marketing plan starts with mastering the fundamentals. This session will guide participants through the step-by-step process of building a comprehensive marketing strategy from scratch. We’ll cover how to define your target audience, craft engaging messaging, select the most effective marketing channels, and build a year-round marketing calendar. This session covers the fundamentals to drive engagement and get campers into your camp.

How Green Teams Create a Culture of Sustainability
2026-03-11 08:30 - 09:30 | Room 316
Sustainability doesn’t stick without shared ownership. This session explores how forming a Green Team – with staff, leadership, and campers – can create a lasting culture of sustainability. Drawing from Green Camps’ national research on the motivators and barriers to sustainability, participants will learn why an inclusive, team-based approach is key to real progress. The session introduces a flexible framework for launching or strengthening a Green Team, featuring approachable project ideas like food waste reduction, energy and water conservation, and camper-led education. Attendees will leave with a Green Team launch toolkit, facilitation prompts, and inspiration to take action.

The New Staff Reaction Training: Don’t Miss the Obvious Moment!
2026-03-11 08:30 - 09:30 | Room 311
Many people fail to realize how critical their initial reaction to campers in various moments is to the likelihood of being effective with them. More often than not, staff reactions are a determining factor in whether a child opens up or shuts down. A mediocre or poor initial reaction also leads to missed opportunities to make a positive breakthrough. This often overlooked aspect of camp counseling can be trained! Teach this concept and train your staff to react appropriately, and they will be far more effective at creating positive, even transformational moments with campers. Rather than react poorly and have to try and reset things, they will be ready, recognize the opportunity, and react like a true professional. A skill for camp and a skill for life!

How to Convince Your Staff to Put Their Phones Away and Have the Best Summer of Their Lives
2026-03-11 08:30 - 09:30 | Room 322
In this session, social media expert Kara Alaimo, PhD, will explain how to convince your staff to put away their phones while they’re at camp. She’ll start by outlining how we can convince counselors why it’s simply unsafe to be on their phones when they’re responsible for children. Then she’ll tell you how to make the case for why a summer without smartphones is good for staff themselves: they’ll practice the art of being fully present in their surroundings, getting comfortable with their thoughts, and even experiencing boredom. Nixing phones will also allow them to invest more in relationships with the humans around them. She’ll explain why doing so will be good for their physical and mental health and even fun, leaving them with skills and relationships that will serve them throughout their lives.

Beyond Diversity: Building Brave and Inclusive Camp Spaces for Black and Brown Youth
2026-03-11 08:30 - 09:30 | Room 401
Creating inclusive camp spaces for Black and Brown youth requires more than good intentions. It demands self-reflection, cultural humility, and active redesign of camp culture. This interactive workshop will guide camp professionals through an honest exploration of how camp norms, traditions, and leadership structures can unintentionally exclude or alienate campers of color. Participants will identify common barriers to belonging, unpack their own implicit biases, and learn practical strategies for building camp environments that affirm every child’s identity. Using storytelling, reflection, and design activities, participants will leave with tangible tools and an actionable plan to foster belonging and trust with campers, families, and staff of color.

Exceptional Thinkers, Exceptional Revenue: Inclusive STEM Programming that Grows Enrollment
2026-03-11 08:30 - 09:30 | Room 308
Discover how inclusive STEM can transform your camp into a destination for all campers, including exceptional thinkers-gifted, twice-exceptional, and neurodiverse children who thrive through creativity and challenge. Explore hands-on design activities that build confidence, problem-solving, and collaboration while creating a powerful return on investment. Learn how accessible tech, adaptive kits, and flexible instruction make STEM meaningful for all campers and easy to run year-round. Inclusive STEM not only boosts engagement and revenue, but it also attracts families who might never consider a traditional camp environment. Build programs that expand your reach, reputation, and impact where every child feels inspired, capable, and proud to belong.

Dump the Dissing: How to Pulverize Put-Downs and Help People Communicate with Respect and Civility in Conflict
2026-03-11 08:30 - 09:30 | Room 303
It’s one of the challenges that current camp leaders are talking about most: in situations of conflict or disagreement, or when anxious or upset, both campers and staff are having increasing difficulties talking to each other with respect and kindness. It’s not their “fault.” We are all living in a world where the models around us use name-calling, taunting, and even refusing to communicate. And this is important: unless camp is a safe and respectful environment, people are less willing to try new or challenging things. This blocks our mission of learning and growth. Our friend Michael from Chicago is on the case! This session demonstrates specific, original, and practical staff training tools and techniques to teach how to confidently handle name-calling and similar negative behaviors and how to support campers in learning how to disagree without being disagreeable. Staff will be able to use these techniques in their own communication and teamwork.

What's Next? Translating Camp Skills Into Real-World Opportunities
2026-03-11 08:30 - 09:30 | Room 408/409
Camp work builds some of the most valuable skills in the modern workforce, including leadership, creativity, communication, problem-solving, and adaptability. Yet many staff members struggle to explain their experience beyond saying they worked at a camp. In this session, Nelson Strickland helps participants bridge that gap. Through clear frameworks, real examples, and actionable tools, he shows how to translate the work done in camp into language that resonates in interviews, resumes, and professional settings. Whether you are preparing staff to launch their next chapter or seeking to articulate your own value, this session is about turning seasonal experience into lasting career momentum.
