S5 E5: International Perspectives on Summer Camp Best Practices – ICF

International Perspectives on Summer Camp Best Practices: Q&A Panel

March 18, 2025

Session description:

A great summer camp is more than just activities—it’s an experience shaped by a clear mission, strong leadership, and a commitment to youth development. Join industry experts from the ICF community as they share insights on how a camp’s purpose can influence everything from programming to marketing to staff culture. Whether you’re looking to refine your camp’s vision or gain new ideas for creating meaningful experiences, this interactive panel will provide global perspectives and actionable takeaways.

We’ll explore:

✅ Mission-Driven Camps: How a clear purpose shapes programs, marketing, and overall success.

✅ Authentic Marketing: Strategies for communicating a camp’s deeper mission beyond just activities.

✅ Youth Development: How meaningful programming fosters character growth and lifelong impact.

✅ Staff Leadership & Culture: Best practices for training staff to embody and pass on camp values.

Hosts: Gabrielle Raill & Ruth Feng

Panelists: John Jorgenson, Kate Taylor, Pablo Casas Alatriste, Dr. Simon Sambrano

A special “Thank you!” to the ICF Academy team for coordinating the presentation of this episode: Dr. Gwynn Powell, Gabrielle Raill, Kate Taylor, Luciana Contreras & Alexia Sideri. An even more special thanks to Robert and Luciana for interpreting live!

Some statistics

85 participants joined for the live episode, from 13 countries (Belgium, Canada, China, Colombia, Cyprus, Grece, Mexico, Peru, Spain, Türkiye, USA, Venezuela, Vietnam).