Camp can be expensive. Waiting lines and other bureaucratic barriers can make the DMV seem like a spring dance. Slots fill with merciless speed, forcing some families to make other plans for how their children will spend their free time in nice weather.
But a park district in Colorado is using government technology to ease the pain of summer camp registration, a move that underscores the business opportunity for suppliers of recreational management tools.
Just more than a month ago, the Apex Park and Recreation District in Arvada, Colo., — a Denver-area city of about 130,000 residents — began using online registration and facility management system from California-based Rec Technologies.
That new system is getting an early test as parents race to put their children into local summer camps.
“It’s like Taylor Swift tickets” is how Julie Hines, the district’s director of recreation services, describes the rush. “They usually sell out in minutes.”
The district runs three summer camps, and the new tech — which essentially had a soft launch on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 19 — allows residents to use a tool similar to the Amazon Wish List to pick out their preferred camp days, she told Government Technology.
That not only brings more order and stability to the process — and, presumably, reduces parental anxiety — but also lets park staff get a tighter, back-end look at summer camp supply and demand. Summer camp represents a significant source of revenue for the park district.
“It’s all about the customer experience,” Hines said.
It’s pretty much a cliche, but that doesn’t make it any less true: In 2026, people used to relatively simple digital commerce experiences such as those offered by Uber, Amazon, Airbnb and other operations increasingly expect similar offerings from their governments.
That goes for recreation.
Residents who use Rec tools can get all their ducks in order — that is, handle waivers and other tasks — before actual registration, which can then happen by pressing a button and going through the online payment process. What the company calls a “mobile-friendly registration system” provides relatively efficient avenues for residents to browse, book and pay for classes and camps, and to use a Disney Fast Pass-like option for reservations.
“There is no last-minute scrambling,” Rachel Williams, co-founder and president at Rec, told Government Technology.
Nearly 90 clients in 28 states use tools from Rec, she said, with many of the deployments happening in California. Rec launched about five years ago.
In San Francisco, for instance, residents use Rec to reserve pickleball and tennis courts, and to connect players with licensed local instructors, which cuts down on unauthorized lessons taking up valuable court time on city property.
“It’s a win, win, win,” Williams said. “The city takes a cut of the revenue, [there is more] access to affordable lessons, and instructors don’t have to squat.”
