Meeting Details

NE Escape Velocity 2027

Escape the gravitational pull of the status quo.

Escape Velocity launched in the fall of 2025 with Camp CEOs and other industry leaders to help answer the question: How should the value proposition of overnight camping be redefined for a modern context? Now in its second year, this event continues as a rapid-build methodology for senior overnight camp leaders.

This year, our big questions center around the Staffing Precipice, The Parent Anxiety Loop and The Digital Detox Paradox. From Tuesday afternoon to Thursday midday, small teams take on a big challenge facing the overnight camping industry, build a concept to address it, and defend it before a panel of judges from inside and outside the camp world.

Teams work through structured innovation sprints, moving from big questions to prototypes with rapid feedback along the way. At the 2025 launch, five teams spent thirty hours redefining the value proposition of overnight camp. Their concepts ranged from a state tax-credit model to a distributed microcamp movement.

Participants will:

1. Apply a structured rapid-build process to a complex, high-stakes challenge facing overnight camp.
2. Develop and defend a concept with feedback from peers and judges from inside and outside the camp world.
3. Leave with a test-ready prototype, sharper strategic thinking, and a network of peers in senior leadership to carry the work forward.

This is an advanced (300-level) offering best suited for Executive Directors, CEOs, and senior leaders of overnight camps and camp-serving organizations, including nonprofit and private camps, who are serious about escaping the status quo. 

This program is being offered in partnership with ACA, New England, but is open to participants from other regions. Camp professionals from around the country are welcome and encouraged to attend!