Kickstart: RVs gain ground as 'tailor-made' social distance vacation option

During a pandemic with social distancing rules, it turns out that people are more interested than ever in recreational vehicles.

Yes, RVs, which essentially are rolling self-contained travel bubbles, got very popular in 2020, and it looks like their time in the spotlight is continuing.

"RVs are tailor-made for a socially distanced vacation, and many travelers discovered the appeal of RVs this year," RVshare CEO Jon Gray said in a report in December, as our sister paper  Automotive News writes.

While first-time buyers usually make up 25 percent of RV buyers, RVshare's report said that in 2020 they made up 55 percent. Although COVID-19 shutdowns forced RV makers to close for nearly two months, the industry wrapped up 2020 only a tiny bit (0.4 percent) behind sales for 2019.

The interest in RVs is also drawing at least one new player. Electronics company U.S. Lighting just announced it is creating a new business, Cortes Campers, to make fiberglass and carbon fiber composite trailers and campers in Ohio.

To keep employees safe on the production floor, you're probably doing digital check-ins to track workers' health. You may be taking temperatures at every entrance point.

German consumer brands company Henkel AG & Co. is taking a further step: Having workers wear plastic badges that emit a beep if you're too close to another person for too long.

The New York Times has a story following Henkel's use of the tracking system from Kinexon, a Munich-based technology firm that supplied similar trackers to NBA players, staff and media to allow the league to complete its 2020 season.

Henkel signed on after an outbreak of COVID-19 at a plant in Serbia, beginning with a pilot program at a detergent packaging plant in Poland.

Henkel said it had no outbreak, and it is looking at expanding the sensors to other facilities. It won't be cheap. The sensors cost $100-$200 each.

As we move into the second year of the pandemic and adjustments to doing business, what kind of adaptations are you seeing from events you'd normally attend in person?

I'm thinking of that while reading coverage from CES, which kicked off on Monday with 1,800 exhibitors, down from about 4,500 in 2020.

Organizers had considered going all in on virtual reality, which would have visitors "walking" the exhibits via digital avatars. They eventually scaled that back to more typical digital presentations.

I'm also amused that our own event, Plastics News Executive Forum, is still finding a way to fit golf into the agenda (a virtual tutorial with a golf pro).

What kind of virtual replacements have worked well for you? Which would you like to see repeated, even when we can travel again? Feel free to drop me a note about virtual best practices.