This week’s episode of MC Fireside Chats focused on the evolving RV and campground industries, with host Brian Searl joined by Eleanor Hamm of RVDA of Canada, Shane Devenish of CRVA, and special guest Daniel Clarkson from Navico Connect. The conversation highlighted current trends, key takeaways from recent conferences, and how technology is shaping the future of outdoor hospitality. The episode opened with reflections on the RVDA convention, where Eleanor and Shane discussed key sessions on artificial intelligence, fixed operations, and dealer education. Eleanor noted the success of the Dealer of the Year award and the value of networking opportunities, which remain central to the event’s impact. Shane added that while attendance from Canadian delegates was slightly down, the overall participation increased, signaling strong industry engagement. Daniel Clarkson introduced Navico Connect’s integrated RV systems, which enhance the user experience by automating functions, improving safety, and streamlining power management. He explained how Navico’s lithium-ion battery technology reduces risks and supports off-grid adventures, while features like power regulation prevent electrical issues at campgrounds. Daniel emphasized the systems’ adaptability for both OEMs and aftermarket installations. Upcoming regulatory changes, such as the 2026 mandate for ground fault disruptors, were discussed in detail. Drawing from Navico’s expertise in marine systems, Daniel explained how the transition would improve safety without causing major disruptions. The team explored how campground owners could benefit from these innovations while preparing their infrastructure to accommodate the new standards. Eleanor shared her experience attending the National Campground Conference, emphasizing the openness and collaboration among campground operators. She highlighted the willingness of industry veterans to share knowledge and support newcomers, a dynamic that stood out compared to other trade shows. Shane echoed this sentiment, noting the importance of creating spaces for campground owners to connect and learn from one another. The panel also discussed opportunities to expand and improve conferences, such as increasing representation from additional provinces and building out trade show components. Suggestions included hosting more association-specific events and integrating educational sessions more strategically to keep attendees engaged with exhibitors. Daniel detailed Navico’s commitment to enhancing the RV experience with features like app-based control of lighting, heating, and energy consumption. He also discussed the potential for Navico’s systems in the RV rental market, highlighting tools that allow fleet owners to monitor and manage vehicles remotely. These innovations align with a growing industry focus on convenience and efficiency. The conversation reinforced the role of technology in improving customer satisfaction, with Daniel addressing practical concerns like range anxiety and campground power compatibility. Navico’s ability to integrate proven marine technologies into RV systems has positioned the company as a leader in advancing RV functionality and safety. As the episode closed, the guests reflected on the unique dynamics of the RV and campground industries, emphasizing the importance of education, innovation, and community in driving growth. The panel expressed gratitude for the opportunities these conferences and discussions provide, especially in fostering collaboration across sectors. This episode marked the conclusion of the podcast’s RV industry-focused series. The team expressed appreciation for their partnerships and looked ahead to the evolving landscape of outdoor hospitality with optimism and enthusiasm.

This is MC Fireside Chats, a weekly show featuring conversations with thought leaders, entrepreneurs and outdoor hospitality experts who share their insights to help your business succeed.

Hosted by Brian Searle, the founder and CEO of Insider Perks, empowered by insights from Modern Campgrounds, the most innovative news source in the industry. Welcome, everybody, to another episode of MC Fireside Chats.

My name is Brian Searl with Insider Perks slash Modern Campground.

Super excited to be here for our. It's kind of sentimental, guys. Our last kind of RV industry focused episode ever, I think, ever, like, obviously.

Well, we're going to talk about the RV industry more, right?

Well, let's make it good, Brian.

All right, well, I'm just going to shut up that new talk chain.

No, go ahead.

Oh, okay.

All right.

So, yeah, super excited to be here.

For our fourth week's episode focused on the RV industry, outdoor recreation, we got Eleanor, Eleanor Hamm from RVDA of Canada and Shane Devenish from CRVA joining us as our recurring guests. And Daniel, do you want to briefly introduce yourself?

Yeah. Daniel Clarkson with Navico Connect. That's a division within Navico Group that provides a partner for progress of our OEM customers.

So we put together the solutions of integrated systems, of power systems and the digital switching systems and the displays so that it sets the customer up for the success. One of the best quotes that we've got is a customer says, I just walk into the rv, I push this button and everything works.

So we bring all of our brands together within Navico Group and we can unpack those.

So this is super important stuff that nobody realizes is going on behind the scenes, basically, right?

Yep.

Like when the customer goes in and they don't and they press the button and it doesn't work because they don't have Navico, obviously, because Navico is flawless and perfect and never goes wrong. Then, you know, like, if you have one of their competitors, then 100% and then they're screaming at the campground owner and everything's on fire.

And it's just, it's like those.

Do you remember those DirecTV commercials where they were like, I don't know if you saw them In Canada, the DirecTV commercials, really, like, why get cable? And there was a whole chain of events that happened. Did you guys have those in Canada?

We did.

Do we? Yeah, there was a whole chain of events where they like if. And then at the end it was a conclusion.

Like if you get, you know, don't let your hair get set on fire or something. Get DirecTV. There's a whole chain of like you get cable. And then this happened, this happened, this happened. Then your hair set on fire.

It was like the punchline that Shane told before the joke. You had to see the commercial anyway.

But yeah, I can see it.

It was, it's just. Okay, it's like the 90s. I'm old too. So anyway, so like let's.

I think, you know, we want to focus a big part of the show on Daniel and obviously what his, his company has to offer. I do want to touch briefly on some of these conferences that we all got back from. Right.

I was at, you know, the first show I was at was Ojai show in Oklahoma City. I'm trying to remember all these cities and make sure I don't get them wrong.

And then we went to the national Canadian conference in Niagara Falls and then we went to KOA after that, which was in San Antonio, Texas. So kind of been bouncing around the country a little bit or both countries.

But I want to start like maybe with RBDA because we have this expertise here on the show with Eleanor and Shane who both went to the show. What happened?

Yeah, well, we have our annual conference rvda, the convention expo. We partner ourselves already of Canada with RVDA in the US for the premier dealer education session and conference.

Started off with some vendor training plus which is more proprietary training from some of our suppliers in the industry. We had over then over 90 educational sessions in different dealership tracks from dealer general manager, digital marketing. AI was a.

Was a big, big topic this year was AI.

I don't know what that is.

Yeah, artificial intelligence. I think you know a little bit about that probably more than I do. Brian.

We also had what was unique this year was Thursday the day, the second last day of the conference we had and one day that was really focused on fixed operations at the dealership. So parts service, warranty, administrator, service advisor training for those specific positions at the dealership.

And then of course we have our expo, the trade show component as well. So really, you know, I think we're. We've just sent surveys out to all our attendees and hopefully we'll get some good feedback.

But just looking to build on some of the new developments that we had this Year and already starting to plan the, you know, for next year, which again will be November 10, the week of November 10, back in Las Vegas.

So one day we'll be able to get to one of those shows. They won't over.

Yeah, hopefully. I know, I know there's a lot going on at that time of year.

Yeah. I think this is interesting for me, right. Like, this is like we were talking about the light switch with Daniel's company. Right.

Like, people don't understand how, how much goes on behind the scenes in the entire industry to have a dealer and all their staff or whoever they choose to bring this convention. But generally speaking, just make all the pieces and parts fit together.

Know all about the models, talk to all the vendors, the expos, decide what they're carrying in their store, what they're going to do in their service department, who they're going to stay. Like, all that stuff, not all of it, but a significant chunk of it is decided and educated and impacted by the RVDA conference. Right?

Absolutely. You know, in terms of just the networking also. Right.

Like you said, I mean, it's one thing to talk to your suppliers, you know, in the trade show, but also all the networking opportunities that happen.

Are you still calling it networking? Is it just drinking?

Well, not all networking has, has alcohol involved, but that's fair, you know, but, but yes, so. So just the networking, you know, is, is an important component of that. You know, we had a couple specific Canadian events. We had.

We have a Canadian reception which was very well attended. Always a nice opportunity to meet with our Canadian representatives and dealers that are there. We also had an annual meeting.

We unveiled our dealer of the Year award which went to BU Cars RV in Alberta. So, no, I think overall I was really pleased with it. I mean, I'm a little bit partial because we put on the event. So I don't know.

Shane, you were there as an attendee. Not sure if you have any feedback.

Shane allowed in the Canadian room, too.

Yeah, we let them in.

Did you have any problems with, like, Americans trying to sneak in after the election or.

We have a few Americans that try to sneak in, but, you know, depending on who they are, we may or may not let them in.

That's fair. Shane, go ahead. Yeah, your perspective, please.

Yeah, no, as always, Eleanor and Phil and their groups did an excellent job. It was, you know, it was a week full of, full of, you know, networking and good, good educational seminars.

But, you know, their exhibit hall for us up here is a chance for us to see some of our members that are scattered throughout the exhibit hall. It was always busy, but. No, it was. It was very well done, as always. You know, I'm sure Eleanor would agree, you know, with the economic times.

They probably wish they had got more attendees coming out, but never let.

I'm sorry to interrupt you, but just.

No, it's okay.

Is it. Was it down or.

Because 17 overall, we were.

No, we were slightly up overall from last year. We were down a bit on the Canadian side.

Okay. All right, well, that makes sense. I mean, it's farther to come, right? So sorry, Shane, please continue.

No, but there was a great group there, and, you know, one.

One of our highlights is always the top 50 RV business top 50 awards, which we saw eight Canadians, eight Canadian dealers up here get the award, and it's always nice to celebrate with them. So.

So I think here's one thing I'm curious about, right? Like, we've been doing the show for, well, I don't know how long, three, four years now, something like that.

But the RV industry show this fourth week for a while. And I don't know that I've ever asked this.

Like, we come on here every year in November, and we're talking about the RVDA conference and how things went. And I don't know if I ever asked Shane and Eleanor this question, but, like, what is.

What is one thing that you guys, as you've been to so many of these shows, right, year after year, what is something that you guys took away from the conference that was new or exciting for you? And I'm not talking about, like a PR answer, right? Like something you learned that you didn't know before you went there.

You know, I think for me, the keynote speaker was outstanding. A gentleman who talked about a life experience that changed his son. Was it Eleanor?

Yeah, his son's life.

Yeah, his son's life. And. And to hear him talk about how everybody in the. Around us can make somebody else's life extraordinary by just doing one thing.

And that one thing that this individual at Disney World did to this young boy changed his life forever. And to hear his story, it was really inspiring. I really like that.

Yeah. His name was Kevin Brown, and it was the hero effect. You know, you can Google him and see part of that on maybe on his YouTube channel.

It was very touching, very moving, you know, in terms of. For myself, I mean, you know, I always like to hear from the dealers about what they're learning and, you know, what.

What they find innovative and new.

I want to know what Eleanor learned.

I don't know what I learned?

The dealers learned something because you guys put on a good conference, right?

I learned that I get a lot more tired a lot quicker than I used to. So, you know, I don't know what else I learned.

You have a lot going on that week.

We have a lot going on that week. We have board meetings, education, you know, executive director meetings. We've got a lot, lot going on. I don't know.

Let me think about it, Brian, and I'll get back to you before the.

End of the show. That is one thing, though, that you talk about. Like, I. And I didn't hear the keynote. I obviously wasn't there. I don't know what that overlap with.

Maybe KOA or something. Actually, I think it didn't overlap with anything this year. And I didn't know that. I think it was in the middle of Jellystone.

Wasn't it Jellystone? I believe it was.

So I didn't go to Jelly Stone either. I completely forgot about the convention. Not that I wanted to. I was back to. Back to back anyway.

But like, we hear those keynote speakers and they are very inspirational. I'm not saying anybody equaled what this guy did, but that is, I think it's fair to say, more common.

Not common, but more common than not to hear people talk about how you can impact other people's lives through the small things you do. Right. And it still astounds me the number of people who will look at me weird when I do stuff. Like, I'm not saying I'm a hero or anything, right?

But I'll walk through the airport and I'll like, thank a janitor for being there, or I'll thank the TSA agent. I appreciate you being here. Right. Like, I just say that non stop all day, and you never know how that's gonna impact somebody, but that's so easy.

But then people will just look at me like, what are you talking that guy for? My girlfriend does that too sometimes. Like, I'll go to hotels and I'll shake the hand of the front desk guy. Thanks for being here.

I appreciate you, Dan. No, why are you talking all these people? Like, not, not in a mean way, right? But just like it's.

It's unusual for people to do that, which I think is part of the power of it, Right. If it was commonplace, then it wouldn't be.

Kind words go, you know, the. Some of these individuals here, you know, hey, you know, it's slippery or yelling at somebody's yelling at them. And just to hear some kind Words.

Right.

So it's good on you. So.

Well, again, I'm not looking for praise. Right. I'm just saying. No, I'm just saying people should do this. But, like, I agree, those kind of keynotes are really powerful.

It's always interesting to me how many people leave the keynotes, whatever the topic is. Right. And actually, like, execute on it. That interests me.

I think it's usually like, you often hear some keynote speakers, will call them out and be like, 10% of the people in this room will actually do something. 90% won't. But it would be interesting if somebody one day could figure out a way to do a study on who, regardless of what the topic is. Right.

Whether it's marketing or motivation or business or finance or being a hero like this guy did or whatever it is, it would be. It'd be interesting to do that. So anything else we have to add about the conferences and stuff like that from RBDA side? No. All right, so let's.

Let's go to Daniel. I want to talk about Navico, and then we'll come back and we'll talk about the National Canadian show and some other conferences.

All right, so, Daniel, for those of us, mostly me, who are ignorant of the RV industry and the supply chain and things like that, because, well, I really have no excuse. I just haven't researched it and it's not something I normally play. And we do marketing for campgrounds. Right.

And whatever modern campground is news and stuff. So tell us, like you told us briefly your intro. Like some of the things you.

But like, what are the things that a consumer or a campground owner or somebody who's not deeply involved in the RV industry would be like, oh, that's important.

Yeah.

So the important part that I think we can bring, if we go to the campground owners first, the systems that we would provide allow just some of the simple things like we talked about earlier. It just works.

I'm sure that the campground owners can appreciate the fact that they've got different RV customers that roll in and they want to plug into the power shore power cord.

And when they do that, if it's a 30amp system versus a 50amp system and the system on the RV is trying to pull too much power from that shore power location, then it will pop the breaker and then the customer is not happy and the campground owner is now forced to go, okay, figure out why is it popping the breaker. Our systems are set up so that again, you plug it in and it will let you know that that's happening.

And that you need to adjust how much power that it pulls in to recharge the system, those types of things. So that I think is some of the things that are very real and tangible for a customer and an owner.

But behind the scenes, then I'm a quick study here.

So, like, what I'm hearing is like, if a campground owner has an issue with a camper who's tripped their electrical circuit, they just should stock Navico parts in their store. And then they should be like, well, obviously it's broken because you don't have a Navico. Here's one that I can sell you.

It's actually the campers. The campers that have. Or the RVs that have the Navico system on them will be much less likely to trip the record.

Yeah, yeah. So, like, you can. I was trying to give you a compliment. Right. Like a hidden. Like, obviously it can't be broke if it's navigo. So we can set up.

Sorry to continue, please.

Yeah, yeah.

But it starts with having all of the systems, as we discussed, kind of underneath the dash, behind the scenes, behind the walls of the rv, the battery power itself. So that many people are concerned. I'm going to put lithium ion in there.

Because there's a trend to move from gensets to power stored in lithium ion batteries, especially if you're going off grid.

But there's also the concern, hey, I saw someplace that, you know, they rolled a bicycle in this building and the whole building burned down because of lithium batteries. Well, the lithium power that we provide actually is of a chemistry that doesn't what we call self propagate.

So if you have some bad thing happen to it and you drive a nail through it, or you run over something that impacts it, it will be contained within the battery. It doesn't spread to the trailer or the motor coach, those kinds of things.

So it starts with a really base, very safe, functional components that we put together, whether it's the batteries, whether it's the power conversion, or then the switching that you can interface on one display within the vehicle.

So safer batteries, safer consumers. Bad for people who are trying to like, destroy their RV to claim insurance.

But everybody else is good mo better.

Guys, you need to ask some intelligent questions because I don't know what to ask of him.

Daniel, are you aware of the new electrical component changes with the ground fault that's coming down 20, 26? All RVs are going to have to have a ground fault disruptor.

Yeah.

Can you. You're aware of that?

Yeah, I. I am aware of that. And it's actually bringing. So most of my background is in the marine industry and boats have had to have that for.

They call it an elci. That device on the boat has been there for years.

So bringing that across into the RV industry is going to be very seamless for us because we've done it for years. We've got several kind of off the shelf here. Put this in place, you're good to go. So that's something we're very prepared for.

Can you. Can you. We're just learning about this and every day we learn some more. Can you help us understand? I think it.

Because we just had a session about this at the campech show in Niagara Falls to try to communicate this at campgrounds. I'm curious about your perspective and I'd love to hear the history of it and what this all means.

Yeah, it's really just like your ground fault interrupt in your house. Right. Or what's on outside of the house or in your bathroom when you throw the dryer in the tub, you don't want it to.

Well, maybe you don't want to take out the dryer.

Where did you come up with this example? Some serious strength.

Boy. We're a serial killer.

With us, it's not the hair dryer, it's the hairdryer.

Anybody seen the movie Psycho? No, but people will remember, right? And the same way I remember things like that.

So it's that same kind of technology in the RV world and in the boat world, where you've got an opportunity to again get a ground fault and you just don't want to shock people.

And the ELCI product that we've developed for marine similarly, obviously you're around all kinds of water all the time with a boat, it sits in water. So you need to protect the people and the boat product from any of those ground faults. That can happen typically on. In the marine world.

And it's been a minute since I've looked at the latest specifications of what they're needing for the rv. But typically, the threshold at which you trip for ground fault interrupt is higher on an ELCI on the vehicle than what it is like on the house.

So that makes it less of an opportunity for nuisance issues. When you have that, do you know that?

Like, why would that be higher on a vehicle?

Yeah, because you can have. It's. It's not high enough so that it will actually shock you, but it's just. It's in milliamps.

It's around 5 milliamps for a your ground fault interrupt on your house and it's about 30 milliamps on a boat.

Again, I haven't looked at the recent ones for what it is on an RV and where that's going to land, but it just allows for a little more robustness to nuisance kinds of things that can happen on an RV on a moving vehicle because you're sitting on either rubber wheels, you know, so that changes the dynamics.

It grounds you in a secondary backup method kind of thing. Okay, gotcha.

So are you going to be heavily involved with the OEMs and Daniel?

Yeah, we. For the OEMs that we already collaborate with like Thor Motor coach and Forest river and Embassy Earth Roamer.

Those between what they are doing and we're members of the RVIA as well, so we also help guide those regulations so that it's not something that's made out of Unobtainium, you know, is also very helpful.

Huh. Hey Brian, can I get one more question in Shane, we have like an.

Hour and I don't know what I'm talking about. About. So we could ask Chad gbd. What?

Ask him.

You can just take it.

Okay, thank you. So we're. We don't know the unknown. We just heard about the changes. In your opinion, how.

How complicated or disruptive is this going to be to campground owners?

You can ask ChatGPT for you to Daniel if you want.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

We can ask ChatGPT for you too if you need an answer.

I need to phone a friend. No, actually I think just like for marina owners, the campground owners, it shouldn't be a significant impact to them.

It's going to be more on the vehicle itself and what you plug into versus what's at the the shore power stations.

Ultimately it'll be better for the owners, right? It'll protect their equipment more, won't it?

Yes, absolutely.

Yeah. So you obviously need Daniel Shane deeply involved in your association more than we do.

I'll send you an application to be an associate member.

Daniel.

Okay.

Do you know what Shane does? Daniel? Do you sell to Canada first off?

We do. Well, I don't have any OEMs in Canada. We sell aftermarket.

So the Navico Group has both an aftermarket and wholesale channel that they sell into Canada with. But primarily the business I'm in is on the OEM side and I currently don't have any OEMs in Canada.

Shane, you have 35 minutes to pitch your membership.

Go. Well, we're the Canadian RVA, but 50% of our members are from the states, so. No, but meeting you is very timely, Eleanor.

Yeah, absolutely. Because we're just. I guess our concern was that with the new ground fault monitoring, that it would.

I mean, it's going to be in the RVs, and so that's fine. But on the campground owner side, if their electrical systems have some gaps in them or some faults, you know, how will that affect.

Will it shut down, you know, the rv. Right.

Yeah, I think that should be fairly low risk. I mean, anything's possible. You wouldn't want to say blanket. There's no risk, but it should be fairly low risk.

Don't worry. Nobody watches our show anyway, Daniel.

So we'll keep you to it.

Okay. Daniel said he's going to come fix all your campground shore powers. Yeah.

Like, it is something that, you know, obviously we're. We're leaning on you for your expertise here. And these. These two know way more than I do.

But, like, I think it's a business opportunity for you if you're leading the pack and already know how to do this from the marine industry. Right. So.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's actually how we've been successful in many of the customers, is because we bring product that was kind of hardened in saltwater, if you will, and then we bring that to the RV world. And it's a bit of a cakewalk for us to. To go do that. Some of the companies want to actually attach our product underneath the chassis of the vehicle.

So now we're back in saltwater again, but it's like, okay, we've been here, done this.

Do you know, for the marine industry and maybe for the RV industry. Is there something a tester out there that could test a pedestal?

Sure there is. Yeah.

And we've got some that actually in our different product lines in the Marinco and Park Power Progressive Industries product lines that service those, the shore power cords and the adapters. It actually will tell you if it's. The wires are properly attached to the correct location on those.

On the. On the campground infrastructure. Wow. Okay.

And is there something like. Are those readily available somewhere that campground owners could pick up or.

Yeah, typically we said they can be the campground owner, so the campground can put those in just to test it or, you know, walk around and test those. Or we also sell those to the End user. So that no matter which campground they're rolling into, they plug in and say, oh, those lights aren't green.

So, again, that's technology that we've had for a while.

This is our first use case of. We should have, like, a PayPal checkout. So they can just send Daniel money on the show.

Oh, he would get rich, trust me. Is there any way of sharing that product after Daniel?

Sure.

We'll. We'll do our best. Just increase your revenue.

Well, you will, right? Like, a lot of people listen to you guys. So.

Yeah.

All right. What else should we know about Navico, though? So we talked about electrical and stuff, but what else.

What else is important for people to know about Navico and what sets you guys apart? I guess.

Yeah, I think the thing that it starts, as we discussed earlier, with the. The engineering that goes into the base level components, our batteries. We design all of the battery management systems and the batteries themselves.

So there are batteries. We've been doing that for about 20 years with the Master Volt brand. And then the power conversion. All of those components are our design as well.

And then we bring those great components together at a integrated system level, such that it does set that customer up for success. So that's really what differentiates us, is because we can bring you a system that's plug and play and not something that's plug and play.

And that works well for the oem, it works well for the dealer, so that when he has to go work on it, we've got all the documentation and sets them up for success and then for the owner. So we provide all that information that cascades through.

And again, you know, the quick start guides all of those things, again, just to set up that customer experience. And we bring experience as well as to what is useful for the end user that we've learned. You know, the fact that has it just like your car, right.

We put sensors within the system so that it will dim the lights at the right time of the night or the day, or turns things on and off. If you're out and about and Fluffy is still in the.

In the vehicle and it's getting warm in there or cold in there, we can automagically turn the heat on or off or the air conditioner on or off. Whatever we need to do in order to keep it comfortable and safe for the people.

And when you get back and you're wanting a great experience, you can either do that through remote devices, through one touch. So I want to set up the vehicle. I walk in and I touch one button on the screen and that will set it up for patio mode.

Because I want these lights on, I want the shade extended, I want whatever I want for that particular scene or mode that you want. So those are the things that we bring to the table.

The expertise of what we know that the customer is likely going to want and then bring in the DNA of that OEM or that dealer network and say hey, this is what we've learned because our customers go to campgrounds in this area and these campgrounds have these kinds of things that you are supposed to do or not to do and we can set up modes that keep them from doing those types of things.

So it's all about making sure that we have a seamless customer experience that they walk away going like, you know, I don't know why this is just such a delighter and removes the pain points for me, but I like this Navigo system.

This I'm interested because you're talking more about my language a little bit now with the Kinect stuff. Right. Just because I'm such a geek. So obviously you have this system that you just described. Does it integrate with third party systems?

Like can it plug into like an Alexa or something like that?

Today we're not. Yeah, today we're not. So that you can say Alexa or Siri, turn on my lights. We're not there.

We were born in the marine industry and the marine industry, the outside noise on a boat, you know, as you're moving through the water it makes it very difficult for sound commands to work. So we are migrating that over as we improve our technology and that's on our roadmap to do. But the ability to do voice commands is not there today.

I mean the reason I ask is just because like we've had these conversations with clients recently like and this is not chain and Eleanor. No, like I'm not so promotional but we've talked about, you know, pivoting our company into heavily into AI and automations and what we're doing it.

Right.

But some of the things we've talked about with automations is like smart cabins and things like present sensors on doors and or door sensors and then present sensors for motion and turning off the lights and turning down the air conditioner, saving energy, NFC pucks, that kind of stuff. Right. And so this like we're not going to push into park models or anything like that. We don't want to design hardware or any of that. Right.

But it interests me the capabilities that are already available but that can quickly be available and integrated to again, just make that customer experience like, I mean, I mean, I mean the most impactful thing I've seen from smart home perspective is like when you automate your lights with presence sensors. You just walk and then you forget there's light switches. That's the biggest noticeable thing.

And I'm not saying you should do that in RVs, maybe you already do, but that, that thing like, and then, and then when you go into an RV or you go into a home or you go into something where you have to flip light switches, then you're like, then you realize how impactful a system like yours is. Right?

Yeah, yeah. So it's those things. We already have radio frequency proximity.

So as you walk up to the vehicle, it will just like on your car, you know, you can unlock the door. You don't have to actually take a key to unlock it. But all of that comes together and we are branding that just launched the new brand called Fathom.

So Fathom is the whole system that does all of the things that we've been talking about and just sets you up not only for success for how you control the lights and the appliances and those different things on your rv, either automagically from different things happening or one touch kind of modes.

But then also we've learned through research that the three elements that a customer really wants to know about their system, if they have gone off grid and they're not using a gen set, then they want to know what's the state of charge of my batteries or how long. Just like your phone. Right. I look at my phone and it says that I'm at 70% state of charge and it's going to last for this much longer.

So they want to know that. But they also want to know, okay, these apps on my phone or in your rv, these devices, the water heater is.

And I don't need the water heater on right now because I'm not going to take a shower until tomorrow. So I'm going to turn the water heater off because it's consuming an immense amount of power. So through the glance on the app it says watts on.

It's actually kind of did a play of words. It's W A tts. So watts on because of the watts that are being consumed. And then Power plus is the final glancing widget.

And that sets people up for success because it kind of says this is the time and this is the source. So we can get source from the alternator, we can get source from shore Power, we can get source from solar.

So any of the things that will recharge the system and says you'll be recharged in this amount of time. So those three critical pieces of information helps solve the other piece.

We talked about safety, but there's also this range anxiety, like with your electric vehicles. It's like, oh man, I need to go 300 miles and my range is only 200 and now I'm going to have to recharge.

So it helps you actually manage that helps the customer be set up for success. So all of those things, again, just so that we can delight the customer and rem remove the pain points.

I think it would be. And please, I hope Eleanor and Jane, you have some good questions here.

But, you know, I think it would be interesting to me and it would obviously be a small impact, I think, and maybe not even worth doing on your side.

But like for all the campground owners who offer RV rentals that could potentially have a system like yours in it, I think obviously that you said there's an electronic pad that they can touch and control the stuff, right? Yes. It would be interesting for those people to somehow figure out a way. And I think maybe this is an API eventually, if you ever wanted to do that.

But building that into like an app that the campground has or something so they can control their RV rental from their phone at the pool or something like that would be interesting. Again, I don't know that that makes a marginal enough impact on your revenue to be worth it, but interesting.

That's certainly where the industry is headed.

And we can do that within the normal radius of Bluetooth and RF today so that you can do that from your phone or a tablet so we can connect to the display that's in the vehicle. And basically the display that's in the vehicle is mimicked on your tablet. So that's. That's doable today as a local connectivity.

And we continue to expand that ultimately as those rental fleets. Not only will the campgrounds that have the rental fleets be able to do that remotely, but also see what the state of charge of the battery.

So they rented it and it's off grid and its state of charge is going down. And it will send an alert to both the campground fleet owner and to the customer to say, hey, my state of charge is getting low.

You're going to need to charge that up if you're going to be gone. So those kinds of things that set the customer up for success and the campground fleet owner up for success.

Well, maybe this is A bigger, addressable market. If we talk about RV rentals, right, like RV share and outdoorsy and peer to peer and stuff like that, you know, I.

I guess I'm more like, how does the customer gain temporary permission to mirror that display if they're renting it, Right. If they don't own it? Is that a thing you guys have thought about, or.

Yeah, it gets a little more complicated, and it depends on which. And most of the complication actually, is making sure you are paying attention to the regulations that are out there.

And the ability for the most difficult one to get is when they say, okay, I want to be able to control this, but in order to control this, I also need to know the location of the phone and getting the customer to agree that the app can say, this is where the phone is and this is how you do that. So those are the things that are actually some of the biggest roadblocks and hurdles that we've got to get through.

You can, as you referred to the APIs or the SDKs that we can write, that's relatively straightforward and turn the crank to do that part.

But the element of making sure whether you're in Canada or in the United States or whether you're in Europe, which is even more interesting once you get over there.

Private perspective.

Yeah, yeah. Those are the elements that actually we've got to make sure that we do.

Now, we are owned by Brunswick Corporation, and Navico Group is one of the divisions of Brunswick. Brunswick also has a division. You may be familiar with a company out there called Freedom Bloat, Freedom Boat Club.

So Freedom is that rental fleet, and much of the capability that you just referenced for campground owners is available. We've just launched the next generation of the app that allows you to rent online. Say, I want to have the boat for these days, do all of that.

Additionally, kind of behind the scenes, the fleet owner is seeing. Did the. The person who rented this boat go run across the sandbar?

And that's why it came back with the skeg and the prop, albeit those kinds of things. So all of those, you know, for the rv, whether it's a motor coach that they drove off the cliff or the trailer that they drug through places.

Cliff. You and your, like, analogy. Wow. A little interesting. Like the driver driving off the cliff.

These are extreme circumstances.

What I'm hearing, though, is like, Daniel and Navico is ahead of. We might as well just retire and sell the RV industry as a whole to Daniel, and it will be in much better shape than it is now.

Is what I mean, because he's already had. He's done it all.

Well, you know, it may come across a little like that, but Daniel's not interested in that big a headache the wrong way.

Like, I'm not saying you're arrogant or anything. Like that's. It's actually quite refreshing to have someone who's thought about some of this stuff.

And I'm not saying there aren't other people in the industry. Right. Of course there are.

Yeah.

Well, I appreciate that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Take it as a compliment, please. I wasn't trying to say anything else. Sometimes my sarcasm doesn't come across the right way. I don't know what it is. Eleanor Shane.

Yeah, I don't know what it is either. Well, I just want to make sure I get something straight. So your system can only be installed at the OEM level when it's being.

When the unit's being produced. It can't be put in after the fact. Right.

We have upfitters that we work with. So you've bought.

You've got an older RV or you've just bought one, got several locations that we provide our system to and they will remove the gen set and put our system in, update the switching system, although that's not as prevalent as, hey, I've decided I want to go off grid and I want solar panels and solar chargers and add an alternator, do all of that. So there are options to go do that.

And we provide a kind of here's the base kit to those distributors and to those upfitters so that they can go do that for you. So it's not just OEM, although my prime focus is with OEMs.

And here is the OEM kit, if you will, that I sell to those upfitters to say, here, use this.

Some of those more unique and tailored elements that we do for a specific OEM won't be available as kind of the base kit that you go do an upfit on, but. Or a retrofit, I guess I should say. But you can still get many of the capabilities that we just discussed through that now.

How widespread, how many manufacturers? You said Forest river and Thor Motor Coach. But like, how many divisions of Forest River.

We've got five divisions of Forest river right now that we're selling systems into, and it depends on which one. Some were standard and some were optional on.

We're.

It's continuing to grow, I'd say, industry wide. You know, Winnebago stepped into this quite a while ago with.

I just lost the name, they bought Lithionics, but before them they had another company that was providing them systems. And so they've really doubled down into that. So we think we'll continue to see that expand with Winnebago a bit leading that elements.

But there's other companies, Earth Roamer that I mentioned, for instance, they've been 100% those types of systems and those are obviously really high end kind of products that are out there.

But we're seeing this continue to grow not only because the consumer wants something that's more environmentally friendly, so it's quiet, it's fume free. It's those things that customers really desire when they go out in the nature. They don't want to interrupt nature. Right.

And this provides for that kind of experience. So the consumer preference.

And then there are some of the states like California, who very soon you won't be able to buy a new RV with a gen set in it that started with zero idle on commercial vehicles that would deliver into cities and those kinds of things. And it's kind of started then cascading into hey, you know, an RV is not that much different than the vehicle that rolled in to deliver my groceries.

So we should do the same thing. So we'll continue to see that cascade across the United States as well.

So both of those things are just driving more adoption of these types of systems.

And then I question for you, so now that the consumer has this, obviously they've bought their unit at a dealership, we've got the service departments. What type of training do you provide to the RV service technicians so that they're able to, you know, repair or work on the product if need be.

And where would they get that?

Sure, absolutely.

In order to set them up for success people, the dealer is buying from the OEM and we focus our training first to the oem and then the OEM typically has classes and service schools that they set up for their product and we will support them at theirs. Because the people are going RVing, they're not going to go battering, they're not going to go digital switching, they want to go RVing.

So it needs to be that whole comprehensive. The dealer needs to be set up to service the entire vehicle, not just our system.

So we collaborate with the OEM to provide that material and the people to provide the training to those dealers.

If you ever need marketing help, I have all kinds of ideas for funny commercials we could do that would help. Like I think you should take like a drug approach. I don't think we could do this in Canada, you guys, but the drug commercials in the United States.

Just ask your RV manufacturer about if navico is right for you.

Yeah, I think it work. And if you don't? If you don't. Yeah, if you don't buy one, Brian, then you got a. A hairdryer in your bathtub.

Like, I think I'm gonna do this, Shane, because, like, you. You had your joke and didn't tell it. I'm gonna make sure my joke is understood. So here's what. Like, here.

This is one of these things I just found on YouTube. Can you guys see that?

We can't. Well, it's blank.

It's blank.

I just see a blank.

All right, let's see if this works.

Oh.

When your cable company keeps you on hold, you'll get angry. When you get angry, you go blow off steam. When you go blow off steam, accidents happen. When accidents happen, you get an eyepatch.

When you get an eyepatch, people think you're tough. When people think you're tough, people want to see how tough.

And when people want to see how tough, you wake up in a roadside ditch. Don't wake up in a roadside ditch. Get rid of cable and upgrade to DirecTV.

I have never seen that.

I've never seen that.

Those commercials out there, they're brilliant. I think you could just do, like, a. Don't stumble around in the dark and, I don't know, step outside and get eaten by a bear.

Have an avocado connect system work really well for you?

Yeah. Fathom Epower is your. That's the hero. In fact, we've got. I know the marketing team is watching so that they can critique me later.

So I'm sure that Chelsea, for copyright.

Violations for that video or whatever, I don't care. So let's spend the last few minutes talking about CCRV A, the national association. Shane and Ella, I'm curious.

You both were there, like, your takes first, and then I'm happy to give mine if you want to hear it.

Yeah, well, I mean, maybe I'll start. I mean, it was my first time at national campground conference, so. You know what? I can tell you what I learned there.

One of the things that I found was really impressive was the openness and willingness to share information amongst the different campground operators.

Like that at rvda. You guys are like cutthroat.

No, we have that as well. But this. There was just. I don't know, it just seemed a little bit. It was different. I don't know.

I'm not gonna say more intimate, but it just, it seemed like there was some new, you know, there was some new, new operators that, I mean, I sat beside a couple that had bought their campground in Ontario and they'd had it for two months and you know, it was just, you know, the, everybody at that table was willing to share and just, you know, all the questions they asked, they were, you know, had answers and willing to share their contacts and, you know, call me every, any time, you know. And so I think, you know, that aspect, I guess I wasn't expecting it to be that way as much. I don't know.

I guess I didn't maybe didn't have that expectation, but I really, really thought it was a very caring group.

Still to this day, that impresses me with all campground shows, right is everybody's so willing to talk and share with each other.

And again, I have no frame of reference on the other side because I haven't been to an RVDA conference, but I've been to other trade shows and other industry industries that are not that similar. So it's definitely a great thing.

Jane, I, I just don't think campground owners have an opportunity very, very often to meet other campground owners and especially.

Like you're calling all campgrounds hermits or what are you.

No, I think they're extremely busy in season and then they may go away and there hasn't been conferences and the opportunity to see other campground owners that may not be right in their backyard. And I think that helped as well. But I would agree with Eleanor.

There was a lot of sharing of best practices, which is kind of the idea of that whole association. Right.

So I'm curious, Shane, from your perspective, like a hard question, right, obviously this is the first year that they've done it in a long time. What would you like to see improved for next year?

And I don't mean criticism wise, like, honestly, as we continue to grow, like conferences have to get better. So just constructive criticism. What do you think could be better?

You know, I thought it was well run. I, you know, I just would love to see more of a representation, I think, from provinces outside the host province.

And you know, I think we're going to be talking about ways how we can do that, you know, and you know, I, you know, some of the best interaction was in open forum discussions. Excuse me, there was one, there was one session where Camping Ontario had their AGM in one area. All the other provinces went into a different room.

And I don't know if you were there. I think you Were. Brian.

I don't know what you're talking about.

And there was a great exchange of ideas about different topics. And I think sessions like that really help maybe expand the variety of sessions, you know, if. If there's more time. But I thought it was well done.

I'm not being critical at all, other than, you know, like, asking you for.

That, just to be clear. Right. I'm just asking, like, we all just like, sharing around the table that Eleanor was talking about.

We all have thoughts and opinions, and it doesn't mean that anything was bad. We're not saying that it was a great conference. We're just saying, like, what do we do then to level it up in year two and then year three?

And I mean, RVDA is the same thing. There's takeaways that you can be better at always, right, Eleanor?

Yeah, absolutely. There's always things we can tweak and, you know, and grow and expand. Different offerings. Yeah. I would like to see more, more.

More provincial associations potentially partner with. With the convention.

I mean, you know, with camping in Ontario and Campex, and we've got a few new associations, Saskatchewan and Atlantic, still growing. You know, it'd be nice to offer them an opportunity to host their meetings as well there in terms of, you know, you might have breakouts for.

If they bring enough people breakouts for their specific associations to meet as well would be a nice enhancement.

All right, so we've done the. How can it improve. What's one takeaway that you were like, wow, this is. I mean, I know you said the conversation.

Right, but what's something that you're like, wow, I didn't expect it to be this good, perhaps this piece of it, because there were really no expectations going in. This is why I think this is an interesting conversation to have, both on the constructive criticism and the good. Right.

Because nobody knew what to expect, I don't think.

Yeah, it's been a long time since I. I've been. Well, the last Ontario Campex was in Windsor, and that would have been about seven or eight years ago. So I haven't attended a long time.

And yeah, I think the mood was very upbeat. I was, you know, I. I think everybody was. And. And from, you know, talking to people on the way out, they were.

They were very happy that they went, which is good to, you know, to hear you. You definitely want to be reassured that that's something that they want to do again.

Eleanor, anything to add or.

Yeah, I just thought, you know, I. I learned also about, you know, about the. The Campground operators.

I mean, you know, there were so many like in the Campex part, all those cool toys and activities that you can purchase for your campground. It was, it was, it was interesting to see, you know, quite different from what we had at rvda.

And so, you know, I had some good conversations with some of the suppliers.

Yeah. I mean I think like overall, like I was very impressed with how like I've been to Camping Ontario for a number of years. Right. Their conference.

And so I think it was a level up from what that normally is not to slight that conference at all because it's always well put on and well organized. Alex and her team do a great job of doing that.

You know, I think, I think the only thing like, and this isn't even a criticism of this specific conference, but generally of the industry in a whole. Have you guys ever been to KOA show?

No.

Okay. Like it's, it's. And, and this is a funding issue. This is not a people doing it wrong issue. Right.

But like KOA is very clearly put on by a production company like RVDA probably is that I think long term, should the association continue to be as successful as it is, which we expect it will be. Right.

That I think that that's something that, like just small things about keeping the people in the exhibit hall more that a professional company would do or having a, a keynote speaker. That's again, the keynote speaker was great. Right. So I hate even uttering these words out of my mouth, but do you guys understand what I'm saying?

The difference between that keynote speaker and the keynote speaker at rbda, not that one was any less, but there's room for improvement. Does that make sense if you're good, if you're, if you're going to expect people to come from all the way on the other side of the country.

Yeah. I mean I would like to see the trade show component grow. You know, I think there's, there's an opportunity there.

You know, the format was interesting. I thought because they had and that we always struggle with that at rvda.

What's the right balance between the education and the trade show and to make sure everybody is happy and you can't take people away from their comp, you know, the trade show when they're in. It's that balance.

But you know, I liked the way they had it sort of the trade show component at the very beginning and then, you know, stagger with some education. But I do definitely think there's ways to enhance that, that side of it as well. You Know, having potentially more meals in there.

You know, we had the one that just keeps people, you know, closer to the exhibitors, which, you know, is really important.

I mean, again, I, like, I don't mean this to come across as negative at all. Right. Because this is not. It's just brainstorming of how, like, we continue to grow this event and make it even better. Right? Yeah.

I mean, look at, like, I could have the same exact criticism I just made of Ojai and how long have they been doing their conference? Right. But we all. But they change different things and they get.

Like, this year, they staggered their exhibit space even more and did, like, I think two hours and then some sessions, and then, I don't know, three hours and then some more sessions. And then. So it was just interesting to see how that changes the behavior and who comes and when they come and how they come.

And, you know, ultimately it's about, you know, networking. That's. That piece was very strong there. I think the networking is great.

Right.

Other than the bus being late. But that wasn't anybody's fault. Right? So how many times did we walk out that door to try to get that bus?

The networking.

Right. It was great. It was exceptional. You know, the education was very strong, especially for a first year conference. And then, you know, the exhibit hall.

Those are the three key elements of any good conference. Right. There's for sure more, but those are the three main things. Would you guys agree? And I think they did them well.

Yeah, they did a great job. Really good.

So. All right, well, anything else we want to add from an industry perspective that you guys want to. This is our last sentimental again, right?

Yeah.

Focus Show.

Thank you for including us.

Yeah.

Legacy is going to be right here. He's on the last one.

Yes.

Nobody really watches it, but, you know.

Well, I'm. I'm gonna remember Daniel, that's for sure.

Yeah, Daniel's gonna get a lot of.

Business out of this now, you know, before we close up, want to wish Daniel and everybody in the US who may see this a very happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. And. Yeah, Happy holidays and a happy. And a Merry Christmas, I guess, since we won't see each other again. Get them all in, Brian.

Well, there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah. Like, Happy Thanksgiving is still weird for me. Like, I was born an American, but Happy Thanksgiving.

I still think it makes way more sense to have it in October when the harvest is done, but. Okay, Daniel, Happy Thanksgiving to our solo.

Same to you. Kind of depends on where you are as to when the Harvest is over. I'm from the South.

I feel like it's. Well, okay. In the South. That's fair. All right. That's fair. I want to know the history. I'm gonna look that up on chat GPT.

I want to know how it ended up at the end of November.

It was the pilgrims. You guys celebrate the pilgrims in Canada? It's the harvest. We don't.

We didn't have the pilgrims really do it at the end of November.

No, probably not.

Yeah. That's what I'm asking.

Why.

Not? The reason why.

Knowing.

Yeah. All right, well, I think we'll wrap up here. Thank you guys for joining us for another episode of MC Fireside Chats.

Eleanor and Shane, it's been a pleasure to have you as part of this RV industry. Outdoor reckon two years now, three years now, something like that. It's been a while. I like.

I think we'll figure out a way maybe to try to fit you in, Shane. And I don't mean that in a negative way. Right. But like, Eleanor, we invited to be on a data show, I think, right, Eleanor?

I believe so, yeah.

I'm getting cut out on data and reports.

Gene is sensitive about these things.

We're not cutting you out, Jane. We're gonna.

We're gonna figure out something, but just trying to move, like, move people around and just figure out where we can have better overarching topics in. But I really appreciate guys and all your work, you know, remember how much you guys love me.

We love you, Brian. Yes.

Are you sure?

Yeah.

Okay.

No, I really appreciate. Yes.

I want you both to remember that you said you loved me. Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it as always. Daniel, where can they find out more about Navico Connect?

Actually, you can go to navicoconnect.com and Eleanor RVD or go to Navico Group and it will take you to all of our products. So go to either one of those. Navico will take you to Master, Volt, C Zone, all of those different great brands.

But when you want to actually put together a whole system, then come to our website and drop a note in, connect to us and we will get you hooked up.

All right? And you two, you and Shane will link up afterward. And I don't know if Eleanor needs to link up too, but you guys are there.

Where can they find out more about CRVA exchanges for the people who don't know.

Www.crva ca and

eleanor rvdfcanada.

Is it www.rvda.ca.

All right. Perfect. Well, thank you guys. I appreciate it. Thanks for joining us for another episode of MC Fireside Chats. We'll be back next week for discussion.

The last open discussion shows next week, too. All this stuff is changing. I don't know what's happening. See you guys later. Appreciate you joining us. We'll take care.

Thank you. Bye, everybody.

This episode of MC Fireside Chats with your host, Brian Searle. Have a suggestion for a show idea? Want your campground or company in a future episode?

Email us@helloodorncampground.com get your daily dose of news from ModernCampground.com and be sure to join us next week for more insights into the fascinating world of outdoor hospital mentality.