We spent years wrestling with color-coded spreadsheets, panicking over rain days, and manually counting activity rotations. Then we decided to build the tool we always wished existed.
It was a Sunday night in July 2024. The kind of Sunday where you should be resting before another intense week of camp. Instead, we were staring at a Google Sheet with 14 bunks, 8 time periods, 22 activities, and 12 locations, trying to build Monday's schedule.
Three hours in, we discovered that Bunk 7 had been accidentally scheduled for the pool at the same time as Bunk 3 - but the pool only holds two groups. And the archery instructor wasn't available second period. And Bunk 1 had gotten basketball four times that week while Bunk 12 hadn't gotten it once.
We fixed one thing and broke three others. Every. Single. Week.
"There has to be a better way. There are thousands of camps dealing with this exact problem. What if a computer could do this in seconds instead of hours?"
That was the moment CampEngine was born. Not in a Silicon Valley office. Not by people who've never stepped foot in a bunk. By camp people who understand that scheduling isn't just logistics - it's how you make sure every camper gets a great experience.
We built a constraint engine that thinks the way a camp director thinks. It knows that swimming can't follow lunch. It knows that basketball needs two teams from the same division. It knows that Friday is shorter and Juniors have nap time. It knows that when it rains, you need a backup plan for every outdoor activity.
And it does all of this in about 3 seconds.
Camp directors got into this work because they love camp - not because they love spreadsheets. Our mission is to give back the 10-20 hours per week that scheduling steals from what actually matters: running an incredible camp experience.
We believe scheduling tools should be:
We're offering CampEngine free during beta because the best product is built with its users, not for them. We want camp directors using CampEngine in the real world - with real bunks, real activities, and real rain days - so we can learn what works and what needs to be better.
In exchange for free access, all we ask is your honest feedback. Tell us what's great, what's broken, and what's missing. Every feature request gets heard. Beta users will also receive a permanent discount when we launch paid plans.
Help us build the scheduling tool that camp has been waiting for. It's free, it's powerful, and it's built for you.