Dscoop4 Exceeds Expectations
By: Cary Sherburne
February 23rd, 2009 -- As the date for Dscoop4 was approaching, event organizers were concerned about attendance, especially in light of the state of the economy. But fears were unfounded. Dscoop4, the conference produced by the independent users group for HP Indigo owners, had its largest turnout ever—1,300 people, including 150 from abroad, were in attendance and the atmosphere was charged with optimism and excitement.
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The conference had displays from nearly 70 sponsors in a large exhibit hall in the Gaylord Palms Conference Center in Orlando, Florida, including several HP presses. The conference included 90 educational sessions, and general sessions were simulcast in two languages in addition to English to accommodate visitors from abroad.
A highlight of the conference kickoff was the announcement of this year’s recipient of the Jack Glacken award, which was established last year to recognize an individual who has made a significant contribution to the market and to Dscoop, and who adheres to values espoused by Glacken (“just do the right thing”). Glacken was the first chairman of the board of the group. This year’s recipient was Alon Bar-Shany, Vice President/General Manager of HP's Indigo Digital Print Division (Watch video of award presentation).
Former NFL Quarterback Joe Theismann was the keynote speaker, highlighting the need to be adaptable to change, especially in uncertain economic times such as those we face today.
During the conference, WhatTheyThink spoke one-on-one with Dscoop Chairman Chris Petro and HP’s Francis McMahon, Director of Marketing, Americas, for HP’s Graphics Solutions Business, covering a wide range of topics.
“I am still floored,” said Petro, “at the number of people and sponsors that are here, especially with the economy being so bad. But the thing that resonates the most is that everyone I am meeting, and the entire atmosphere here, is positive. There is a true sense of community. I am very touched. A conference like this takes a lot of preparation. The people that worked hard to put it together are entrepreneurs that are also running a business and still have a job to do every day. It is amazing that they would be so selfless as to give the time and effort it takes to make this event a success.” Many companies also brought multiple people to the conference to take advantage of the learning and networking opportunities it presents; Petro, for example, brought nine people with him.
Petro also gave HP a great deal of credit for its support. “They had a change in business units and executive leadership last year, and like most companies, somewhat disappointing profits and sales. I needed to know where we stood relative to Dscoop and the conference because HP is a big part of this event. We get things from HP that are valuable to our community, not the least of which is attendance by engineers from Israel that can talk to us about the future of the product line. They also learn from the users, of course.” Petro took a trip to the West Coast to meet with HP a few months ago and was pleased with HP’s commitment to step up its support of the group. “I really believe they are here not to sell presses or clicks, but to help the community grow,” he adds.
In addition to HP Indigo users, HP employees, representatives of the press and sponsors, HP also invited a number of prospective customers who were identified by an orange stripe on their badges. These folks had an opportunity to experience the community firsthand, as well as to see HP and partner products in an open and educational environment that is much different from a trade show. Conference organizers were quick to point out that most sponsors send senior executives to the event to take advantage of the unique opportunity it presents to meet and speak with HP Indigo owners, many of whom are their customers as well.
Another high point was a keynote delivered by international speaker, consultant and writer Corbin Ball, who shared his top seven technology trends that are transforming business and society during an informative and entertaining session. Among these were the increasing role that Web 2.0 will play in the way businesses bring their wares to market, the growing role of mobile communications, and some interesting technologies that will enable more effective virtual meetings. Ball makes his presentation available online for our readers to review.
During his presentation, HP’s Executive Vice-President of Printing and Imaging, Vyomesh Joshi, reported that even though the number of Indigo units placed in 2008 declined, page volume produced on HP Indigo presses increased by 25%. He reasserted HP’s strategy to drive digital page growth through its initiatives, and encouraged attendees to focus on the critical few factors that will drive growth in their businesses and get them through these tough times, highlighting business planning and process automation as two key factors.
Throughout the program, Dscoop and HP representatives placed a tremendous amount of emphasis on HP’s Capture Business Success program. McMahon says, “87% of all new Indigo customers last year went through the Capture binder series, which includes a number of DVDs, and they registered on MyIndigo.com and joined Dscoop. Over 58% of customers who have our Capture program took advantage of the marketing components, and 80% took advantage of technical components. Even though all of the resources are online, we found that the binders are a necessary evil—if it is not physical, people believe there isn’t a program. We find that people use a combination of the web and the DVDs and are gaining great value from the program.”
Another offering attendees showed a great deal of interest in was HP’s SmartPlanner. According to McMahon, “This is a financial tool that allows you to enter your data, including manpower, how many shifts you have, the production platform details, and the job specification, generating a report that will tell you what the crossover point is between analog and digital, which digital device is most suited to producing the job, what the margin on the job will be, how many hours it will take and other operational information that allows owners to make decisions on a job-by-job basis. They can also run a variety of different scenarios that they see on a regular basis and have the answers before the questions even come in.”
McMahon also talked about the recent launch of MarketSplash, which was discussed on PrintCEO. He was quick to point out that HP does no printing in this program, which is designed to provide access to creative marketing materials primarily for SOHO and small to medium businesses, including the ability to personalize. “Ultimately, we believe this will drive digital page volume across the entire HP printing and imaging portfolio and for our customers’ businesses,” he says. “Currently, we make three options available to users: They can print at the desktop, they can send their work to Staples, or for more complex work, we are partnering with The Taylor Corporation. Our goal is to accelerate growth in digital pages and to evangelize the value of personalized communications.” While there is an expectation that work will be printed on HP equipment, it is not a contractual requirement with Staples or Taylor, McMahon says, adding, “The real question is how a print service provider can take advantage of this software-as-a-service offering. We will make this available to print service providers as a branded solution, including LogoWorks, templating and everything, as a scalable solution powered by HP that directs the printing back to them.” McMahon indicates that several companies that have invested significant dollars in their own home-grown solutions have expressed interest in migrating to this approach, saying they would prefer to pay a monthly fee for a hosted solution that will eliminate the need for them to maintain and continue to develop their own solution.
Dscoop5 is planned for January 28 to 30, 2010, again at the Gaylord Palms. Petro says, “This is a great facility and very conducive to an event like ours. The convention center has 17 loading docks and it is very easy for the sponsors to get in and get set up, even with the big HP presses. Also, Orlando is easy to fly in and out of, which is especially important for our international visitors. Many attendees also bring their families to take advantage of the proximity of Disney World and other local attractions.” Petro also pointed out that the group chooses a facility that makes it easy for users to network in a casual environment, over a cup of coffee or other beverage of their choice, and we saw that in evidence throughout the conference. “This is important to continue to build community,” he says. The group is already working to make sure that next year’s event is even bigger and more valuable. We don’t want to duplicate content. Who knows what this next year will bring, but as we put the content together, we want to make sure it is as timely and relevant as possible, and not just a rehash of previous years.” Petro is hoping that HP CEO Mark Hurd will be available for the event in 2010.
In the interim, Petro would like to see the group place focus on the educational institutions that serve our industry. He says, “We have come full circle in graphic arts since the inception of digital printing. As the technology came into the market, graphic designers, who are key specifiers for the purchase of print, were often perceived as a barrier because they did not believe the quality we could produce in the 1990s was good enough. As a result, many of us distanced ourselves from designers. But we really need them. We need to ensure that designers understand how to design for digital, the types of output devices that are out there, and the technology that is available to allow CRM to drive output for more timely and relevant communications. As a community, we need to work closely with graphic arts educational institutions to let them know what we need in our businesses from their graduates, not only in design, but across the board.”
Petro concludes: “My dad used to always say, ‘You need to learn something every day and you need to teach something every day.’ As an industry, we are not good at this, and that has manifested itself in the workforce that is available. It can be hard to attract good talent to this industry, but once they get here, they find out how exciting it is. They see what the presses can do and what they can do with unique substrates, and they challenge themselves. In my business, we get the most phenomenal ideas form the premedia group. We need to start at the high school level to begin attracting new talent to the industry.” Petro would like to be able to take a Dscoop roadshow to various cities and invite representatives from the educational institutions, along with Dscoop board members, general members and HP engineers, to foster a new level of communication with educational institutions. He would also like to start a mentoring program that makes resources available to high schools, vo-tech institutions and colleges and universities that have graphic communications programs.
It is exciting to see the energy and enthusiasm that is coming from this group, its leadership, and HP itself. It is this type of leadership that will help our industry get through this period of tremendous structural change, and come out the back end a stronger and more vibrant industry.
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