River of Light is an outdoor illuminated gallery on Liverpool Waterfront, a 2KM loop, featuring light and sound from local, national and international artists.

Join us for a welcome reception at the historic Royal Liver Building. With panoramic views over the River Mersey and a prime location on Liverpool’s world-famous waterfront it's the perfect location to kick-off Camp Collab.

Please access the Royal Liver Building via the waterfront entrance.

The official Collab kick-off. A short overview of the conference and the exciting 3 day agenda ahead.

What does leadership mean to you? And what are the leadership qualities that will serve you well as you navigate the challenges you face and seek to elevate your staffing approach?

This interactive session will provide you with the opportunity to use the Qualities of Practice Cards® to explore and reflect on these questions and to provide a learning focus for the rest of Camp Collab.

Throughout this interactive session, participants will explore how their camp’s mission and values can help guide them in cultivating a culture of gratitude and appreciation among their staff team throughout their entire camp lifecycle. The goal behind this culture shift is to ensure a positive experience for all staff members, resulting in a more engaged and committed staff team.

Participants will leave this session with tangible ideas that can be implemented at their respective camps to strengthen the relationship between staff members and the leadership team and improve their overall camp culture.

Join three Camp Leaders participants to learn the ins and outs of the motivations of young people to participate in a cultural exchange experience at camp. Hear their stories, and learn what makes the most lasting impact on their experience.

This presentation will centre around a couple big questions: "What is a safe space?", "Why do we need them?"  and "Where do we start?". The collaborative session will ask you to better define what you believe a safe space looks like at your camp. Andi will focus on LGBT+ communities in the UK that the foundation works with and how that can help you in the camp context while also exploring wider inclusion themes.
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The presentation will give the opportunity to ask questions in a safe environment and learn more about the work of the LCR Pride Foundation and small steps that can be taken by everyone to be more inclusive, without needing to take drastic actions or make huge changes overnight.

This short, guided session will provide you with the space and time to reflect on your learning from the day.

Join us for drinks and canapés at Nova Scotia, an independent bar and eatery that celebrates Liverpool's forgotten Nova Scotia district that was an integral part of Liverpool's maritime history.

This short, guided session will help you to reflect on any overnight thoughts or insights, and bring intentional focus to the learning opportunities that will present themselves during the day.

The role of effective leadership is well-documented and critically important to any organization's success. You can expect several benefits when developing leaders out of your current staff at Camp, including greater productivity, staff satisfaction and higher staff return rates. These marginal gains can contribute to a high-performing culture and ultimately lead to a more positive experience for your Campers.

In this session, we’ll explore research into what makes leaders effective, how to identify high-potential individuals and engage them in a development process, apply core leadership lessons, and discover the small actions you can take as a Camp Leader that will have the most significant impact.

Want to know the latest employment law trends impacting the camp industry? Need guidance on how to address mental health and other accommodations issues with summer staff? Thinking about updating your policies for year-round staff? Rachel will discuss the most urgent employment issues to think about before Summer 2024.

Mark Overmann of the Alliance for International Exchange will dig into the details of the current context around U.S. Department of State BridgeUSA exchange programs, including Camp Counselor. In particular, he’ll discuss two past existential challenges to exchange programs and the advocacy efforts to combat them, how those experiences should inform our future actions, and what to expect with the current political dynamics in Washington, DC and the upcoming 2024 Presidential election.

This short, guided session will provide you with the space and time to reflect on your learning from the day.

The Liverpool Gin Distillery, produce their very own Liverpool Organic Gin on-site in a custom-built 60 litre copper still. Witness the distillers in action, whilst relaxing and enjoying a refreshing drink at our wonderful bar and dark spirits room.

This short, guided session will help you to reflect on any overnight thoughts or insights, and bring intentional focus to the learning opportunities that will present themselves during the final day of the Camp Collab.

Whether through humility or uncertainty, camps do not appreciate the full power they can unleash on the world. The impact is not measured correctly, and, criminally, for camp, the stories are not told well enough. The US camp industry should be recognised by governments, the UN, and Nobel Peace Prize committee... you may think Chris is joking — he isn't.

Learn more about Beth's journey from a 7 year-old to becoming Britain’s most successful female gymnast. You will hear about ups and downs and what life has been like since transitioning from an athlete into everyday life.

This session will help to provide an educational overview of some of the main principles of nonresident tax for both employers of international camp staff as well as camp staff themselves. The session will cover topics such as identifying a foreign national/potential NRA receiving payment as a camp employer, determining tax residency, understanding FICA taxes and more.

Jake Mills will engage you in conversation around his journey from being a depressed comedian to CEO of national mental health charity Chasing the Stigma. Discussing his lived experience and how he created the UK’s biggest mental health signposting toolkit the Hub of Hope.

Dive further into the topic of mental health with an open discussion on what we can be doing to foster positive mental health amongst our staff community. Learn about challenges being faced by young people today, and what sticks in the their minds as they make the decision to spend a summer in a foreign country.

This short, guided session will provide you with the space and time to reflect on your learning from the day.

Ivy and Dave will lead a short all group session to close out the conference.

Join us for an evening of great food and entertainment to close out the Camp Collab conference, where we'll celebrate the kick-off of Camp Leaders' 25th season.

Dress Code: Smart Casual / Cocktail

Meet your recent hires and future staff in-person for a casual drop in event. Participants will have the chance to ask you and the Camp Leaders team any questions they have and they will have a chance to snag some exclusive free merch.