The Wall Street Journal has an article on ID Tech Camp.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304211804577501172428439382.htmlChildren Learn a New Way to Play at Summer Camp That Teaches Tech
By RACHAEL KING
July 4, 2012, 1:07 p.m. ET
MORAGA—Eight-year-old Daniel Katari isn't just playing computers games this summer—he's making them too.
Daniel, who will enter third grade in the fall, built five computer games within a week last month. He did this at iD Tech Camp, which specializes in teaching kids ages 7 to 18 everything from 3D modeling and animation to Web design and programming in C++. Daniel enrolled for a weeklong session at Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga.
"The best part is playing the games and seeing how they're all put together," says Daniel, who named one of his new creations Brick Braker II. Next summer, he says, he would like to enroll in a session for game design for the iPhone and iPad, which his 12-year-old brother, Michael, just completed.
Daniel and Michael Katari are two of the 23,000 children that iD Tech Camp, run by Campbell-based internalDrive Inc., expects to host this summer in about 60 locations nationwide. With the camps in the Bay Area starting at $799 a week and running up to $1,298 per week, internalDrive is tapping into children's growing appetite for tech to expand its business.
This year, internalDrive is forecasting revenue of $26 million, up 30% from 2011. The privately held company now has 70 full-time and 600 summer employees, compared with 45 full-time and 450 summer employees three years ago, and says it is profitable.
Pete Ingram-Cauchi, internalDrive's president and chief executive, says the company has become the country's largest provider of tech camps.
In the Bay Area, families have several other choices, including camps run by TechKnowHow Inc., in Foster City, Edventure More in San Francisco and The Tech Museum in San Jose.
"Our camps are run out of elementary schools, they're more neighborhood-focused," says Ed Caballero, 35, co-founder of Edventure More, which runs EdTech camps. Of his competitors, Mr. Caballero says iD Tech is the biggest and most well-known.
ID Tech has camps at universities such as Stanford, University of California at Los Angeles, Northwestern, Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The camps are generally more expensive than competitors, largely because of smaller class sizes—eight students per teacher. "Parents are seeing the value of what we're providing," Mr. Ingram-Cauchi says.
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