Kickstart: A summer of staycation spending

Once we find some idea of what "normal" is again, we're likely going to be somewhere close on the calendar at the beginning of summer. But I'm sure your next few months won't be filled with a lot of vacation travel, but rather with staycations.

So I'm guessing some summer improvement projects have made their way into your schedule in 2020. Expanding the garden? Improving the deck? Maybe adding a swimming pool? Well, some plastics companies certainly think so.

Trex Co. Inc. reported its sales in the first quarter of 2020 were up 12 percent compared to a year ago, something that may be related to people spending more time at home.

"We believe that stay-at-home consumers are prioritizing home improvement projects, especially those that will add lasting value, enhance enjoyment and minimize maintenance," CEO and President Bryan Fairbanks said in a conference call with analysts.

For Confer Plastics Inc., a molder in North Tonawanda, N.Y., its normal business is making accessories for swimming pools and spas. It hopes to return to that work soon and has cited demand for those products as part of its need to reopen regular production.

"I think we're going to meet a lot of consumer demand over the course of the next two months," President Bob Confer said. "We've indicated the need that exists for our swimming pool products based on the fact that we're looking a world right now that's focusing on home confinement and staycations."

When the Society of Plastics Engineers' traditional Antec conference, set for March 29-April 1 in San Antonio, had to be moved to a virtual event, SPE had to change things up, but the result provided some strong numbers.

A total 3,300 people from seven countries tuned in to at least a portion of the 93 hours of programming spread across multiple weeks.

To make time for presenters who otherwise would have been featured in concurrent events, SPE had live virtual events three days a week until May 5.

SPE CEO Patrick Farrey said technical session audiences grew exponentially for the virtual event, with some sessions attracting nearly 300 attendees, "which would have been unlikely in our on-site event, when we schedule a dozen or so concurrent sessions."

"For speakers this meant that their research and findings were exposed to a larger, more diverse audience," he said.

And because the events are now archived on YouTube, members can continue to dip in and explore sessions.

We here at Plastics News have also been doing more digital content, as you may have noticed. And, like Antec, that content is available even if you're busy during a "live" webcast.

Publisher Brennan Lafferty's "What Keeps You Up At Night" podcast series is on our website, but also available on Spotify, iTunes, and now Google Play.

This week, he spoke with Nicolet Plastics CEO Tony Cavalco about the work it is doing to continue operations at two Wisconsin plants while also keeping workers safe.

And if you missed yesterday's live event interviewing two members of the Rising Stars class of 2020, those events are archived for viewing anytime, although some web events are available only for subscribers. It may take up to 48 hours after an event for it to show up in the archive.