Dscoop, the independent user group for HP Indigo and Scitex owners, has been one of the biggest user group success stories in our industry.  Even though last year was terrible for the industry, Dscoop had an attendance of 1,823 and had to turn away both attendees and sponsors because the demand was so high.  In 2011, Dscoop 6 organizers expect to significantly exceed that attendance level.  The conference will be held February 17-19, 2011, at the Gaylord Palms Hotel and Conference Center in Orlando FL.

In conjunction with HP, Dscoop has scheduled a truly unique partner event. The first-ever Dscoop/HP Partner Summit will be held at the same time as Dscoop, but at the nearby Orlando Marriott World Center. HP’s entire graphic arts sales force will attend, as well as scientists from the R&D teams and HP Labs in Israel. Engineers from partner firms will be able to attend, giving them the opportunity to meet face-to-face with their technical counterparts at HP.  Gold and Platinum partner firms will also have the opportunity to present to the HP sales force, educating them about their products and how they fit into the HP ecosystem.

Eric Hawkinson, Executive Director for Dscoop, told me, “We reached out to Dscoop and HP partners to ask them how we can make their partnership with HP more valuable, and this is one of the ideas that came out of that discussion.  We are building bridges where they have never been built before, especially for smaller partners that may not have as much opportunity as a larger partner might to interact directly with HP scientists and sales professionals.  We believe this event, where we expect at least 400 attendees, will be a game changer that will alter the digital landscape.”

Hawkinson cited one partner as an example, indicating that MindFireInc will be bringing its Thai engineers to the event.  “This is not a one-way dialog,” he added. “We expect that our partners will also bring innovative ideas to the table that could affect HP’s future plans.  The outcome will be a unified roadmap that has all of us pulling in the same direction.”

Kudos to HP and Dscoop for this massive undertaking.  We will look forward to reporting on the outcome post-event.

Dscoop is also expanding into Latin America and Asia, and plans lots of news starting in November about what Hawkinson describes as “truly remarkable” changes to Dscoop that will increase its value to members.  He says, “If you are an HP Graphic Arts customer, you will want to be a member of Dscoop.”