Article courtesy of Sprinter.
More than 1200 industry professionals from 37 countries, including Australia, gathered in Indianapolis this week for Dscoop’s annual flagship event, with Dscoop Edge Indy recording the highest number of attendees post-pandemic.
“We’ve have been really pleased with the attendance of this year’s Dscoop,” Peter van Teeseling, Dscoop’s executive director, told Sprinter.
“Every year, we have roughly about 30 per cent that are first time attendees, and around 30-40 per cent that have attended between one to five Dscoops previously. There are several reasons why we have such a high number of returning attendees, but I think the main reason is for the connections that are formed and the learnings that are shared with each other.”
Kicking off this year’s Dscoop Edge Indy, HP unveiled its worldwide pre-Drupa portfolio, which included six on-site HP Indigo Digital Presses for commercial, labels and flexible packaging.
HP’s pre-Drupa portfolio reveal included two new generation B2 presses, the HP Indigo 120K Digital Press and the HP Indigo 18K Digital Press, in addition to the HP Indigo 7K Secure Digital Press and innovations across the intelligent production floor. HP announced it will roll out general commercial availability of the HP Indigo V12 Digital Press after successful beta site installations.
HP also announced the launch of the HP Sustainability Amplifier program enabling printers and converters to accelerate their sustainability agenda and offer more sustainable prints.
The drupa reveal was part of a 96,000-sq.-ft. education and exhibition area that also included live equipment, press and software demonstrations from 70 Dscoop partners.
The event’s education program featured more than 45 presentations and panel discussions led by Dscoop community members as well as outside experts in sales, marketing, and technology. Keynote speakers included Alex Rodriguez, baseball superstar, Emmy-award-winning TV analyst, and chairman and CEO of the investment firm A-Rod Corp, and author and gathering expert, Priya Parker.
“For the first time this year we ran multiple education breakout sessions. We chose to break the sessions into segments such as sustainability, IT, marketing, social media, based on discussions from our members on the topics having the biggest impact on the industry.”
The Dscoop Distributed Print Exchange platform, which aims to streamline the outsourcing of digital jobs to other members of the Dscoop community, was also officially unveiled, with Australian print technology company DFLOW named as the software system partner for the platform.
The platform is currently in development with six member companies from Australia, Germany, UK, Mexico, and USA, outsourcing print jobs to each other. Future expansion stages of the platform will be launched at drupa as well as further enhancements later this year, with the platform expected to be fully operational by early 2025.
“The platform is a very important project for us in the future, and it’s a great partnership that we have with the DFLOW team,” van Teeseling said.
This year’s event saw the launch of a new feature on the Dscoop Community Platform, an online forum for members to connect. Dscoop also announced it will host two educational sessions during drupa on May 31 and June 3.
“We want attendees to walk away each year from Dscoop feeling good about themselves, their company, our community, and the industry. We’re all facing the same challenges and a forum like Dscoop allows members to share their problems and share solutions – an important aspect of Dscoop is collaboration and that’s what the Dscoop community excels at.”
Kelvin Gage was named the recipient of this year’s Jack Glacken “Do the Right Thing” Award. The annual award, which is named after Jack Glacken one of the founding members of Dscoop and the organisation’s inaugural chairman, recognises outstanding commitment and contribution to the Dscoop community.
Next year, Dscoop Edge Long Beach will be held on 14 – 17 May 2025 at the Long Beach Convention Centre in California.
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