Dscoop5 Dates Announced; Partner Program Attracts Major Vendors

CHICAGO—07/10/09—Dscoop (Digital Solutions Cooperative), the independent community of HP Indigo owners and operators, has announced that Dscoop5, the organization’s fifth annual conference, will be held Feb. 18-20, 2010, at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Dallas.

“For the past four years, the annual conference has been the centerpiece of the education and networking that Dscoop offers, and next year will be no different,” said Susan Moore, Dscoop conference chairwoman and president of Digital Printing and Imaging. “While the current economic conditions have been challenging, I am working with incoming Dscoop Chairman Larry Vaughn to ensure that Dscoop5 delivers a strong return on investment for our members’ training dollars and valuable time.”

Dscoop5 will feature more than 90 sessions in business and sales, operations, label and packaging, and breakthrough partner solution tracks. In addition, it will feature large-format sessions focused on helping commercial printers increase their service offerings and profit margins. The event will also feature ample scheduled and informal networking opportunities, including roundtables and best practice sharing sessions for attendees to brainstorm ideas and share experiences about universal challenges such as improving productivity and reducing operating expenses.

Dscoop also continues to expand internationally. Last year, more than 150 HP Indigo customers came from the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions. Dscoop expects that number to increase to 300 for Dscoop5.

“The burgeoning international aspect of Dscoop is an immense benefit to our North American members,” said Francis McMahon, director of marketing, HP U.S. Graphic Arts. “Bringing in global Indigo owners and users who are approaching the same types of problems with a different mindset will enhance our members’ experience and add to the collective knowledge of the group.”

In addition to the conference, the Dscoop 2010 Partner Program has attracted major vendors in the digital print industry. Twenty-five percent of the Partners from 2009 have already renewed, and 98 percent have indicated an intent to renew for 2010. GPA and AB Graphic International Inc. have signed up as Platinum Partners. Confirmed Gold Partners include Adobe, Domtar Corp., Online Print Solutions and Rollem International. Confirmed Bronze Partners include Digilabs, FLEXcon, GMC Software Technology Inc., Great Reach Communications Inc., HubCast, Masterpiece Graphix, Michelman, Sappi Fine Paper, Tekra Corp. and Yupo Corp. America.

“Our Partners are an important part of the Dscoop community,” said Mark Sarpa, Dscoop5 sponsorship chairman and president of Progressive Solutions. “I’m looking forward to working with them to maximize the value of partnering with Dscoop—not only will we have additional exhibit hours at the 2010 conference, but we’ll also have more year-round opportunities for them to reach our members. We are limiting the number of Partners and expect to sell out again this year.”

Attendee registration for Dscoop5 will open in September, and information will be added to www.dscoop.org as speakers and sessions are announced. For more information about the 2010 Dscoop Partner Program, contact Dscoop Sales Manager Rebecca Baker at 312.673.5827.

About Dscoop
Founded in August 2005 by HP Indigo users and the HP Graphic Arts Team, Dscoop (the Digital Solutions Cooperative) is a user-driven community of HP Indigo press owners and operators. Working with HP’s Indigo support team, the association is focused on helping Indigo users support each other to better their print businesses as well as the backbone technology of HP Indigo’s digital solutions. HP Indigo customers, press owners, operators and affiliated professionals use Dscoop as their front-line peer-to-peer resource for learning and sharing. Dscoop offers members a host of business development tools, education Webinars and online discussion groups. To learn more about Dscoop, visit www.dscoop.org.