Growing the digital printing community, with Peter van Teeseling, Dscoop

Gary Pageau of the Dead Pixels Society talked with Peter van Teeseling, executive director, Dscoop. In this interview, van Teeseling talks about the history of the Dscoop organization, the value of community and highlights from the upcoming Dscoop Edge World Expo St. Louis.

The Dead Pixels Society is returning to the annual DScoop global conference. The society is once again hosting a Photo Imaging CONNECT mini-conference track at Dscoop Edge St. Louis World Expo, May 7-10, 2023, at the America’s Center conveniently located in the heart of downtown St. Louis, Mo. In addition to the excellent Dscoop education and networking program, there will be four 45-minute sessions, two on Monday, May 8, and two on Tuesday, May 9, specific for the photo imaging segment. Click here for a special $50 discount; the code will be applied automatically.

Dscoop is a dynamic, user-driven community of HP Graphic Technology owners and their sales, marketing and production teams. Members of Dscoop are focused on supporting each other to collectively improve their print businesses and the backbone technology of HP digital solutions. Dscoop is all about community: interacting with peers, exchanging experiences, sharing and learning best practices, and so much more. The organization provides the platform, infrastructure and access to experts that facilitates interaction among our community.

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Transcript

Erin Manning  0:02  
Welcome to The Dead Pixels Society Podcast, the photo imaging industry's leading news source. Here's your host, Gary Pageau. The Dead Pixels Society Podcast is brought to you by Mediaclip, Advertek Printing, and School Photographers of America.

Gary Pageau  0:19  
Hello again, and welcome to The Dead Pixels Society Podcast. I'm your host, Gary Pageau. And today we're joined by Peter van Teeseling, the executive director of Dscoop. Hi, Peter, how are you today?

Peter van Teeseling  0:31  
I'm doing well, Gary, thank you. Thank you for having me.

Gary Pageau  0:34  
So, for the folks who aren't aware of what Dscoop is, as an organization, can you briefly give us a summary of the types of businesses either printers, service providers or vendors who are involved in Dscoop? What makes Dscoop their organization?

Peter van Teeseling  0:56  
Okay, yeah, well, the school has been around for 18 years and started as a user group of HP Indigo printers, together with hp. And in the past 18 years, it's developed to this global movement of printers, suppliers that have printers in HP, into a movement and community that the purpose is to drive the transformation of the industry. So getting everyone to go digital, essentially. And it sharing best practices, collaborating for their customers, and building alliances to further the goals of digital grid.

Gary Pageau  1:33  
So you do that through a variety of activities, you've got physical activities, you've gotten meetings around the world. And you have an online community that is pretty robust. So it's year round Dscoop, correct?

Peter van Teeseling  1:47  
Yes. I mean, that's certainly part of the evolution, right. I think in the beginning, it was a once a year event, and we would still hear someone people, sometimes people say, hey, will I see your desk next year? But yeah, it's it's now a year round committee. We haven't an online platform, we publish about 200 articles, you know, stories from our members. Throughout the year. We have a very active audience on our newsletter social. And then we still do online and in person events. And they range from smaller local events to big conferences.

Gary Pageau  2:25  
So the arm I mean, the local events, I think, are something that I have found intriguing, because I've not been to some of these places, but you kind of get an insight into them. Can you talk a little bit about some of those localized events? Because it seems like they're very well attended. And there, there's a lot of great information sharing that happens there.

Peter van Teeseling  2:45  
Yep. I mean, we've done local events for the last seven or eight years, right. And, and all of that is to bring these groups into countries or areas that, for example, language is a barrier in communicating. So think about Latin America, I think about across Europe, multiple languages. And clearly Asia has many different languages and cultures as well. And they've been very successful building local communities. So we have membership in about 100 countries right now. And they have always been well attended. But they've always been also driven by our members. So we have local members volunteering their their time and energy. To help us build programs that attracts an audience. I would say the program we're running, for example, in this year, we call them summits, we make them a bit more sub regional or multi country, you know, and they are like two day programs, they attract anywhere between 80 to 150 people, but they would come from multiple countries, they would like we did one in Rome in January, we had 100 people flying in from about 20 countries, including the US and India, and then across Europe, and really getting together for two days to talk about a theme or a topic that motivates them in this case was around ecommerce and AI. But there's there's always a combination of education, social socializing, like a dinner or a city tour, and a visit to one of our member sites. And that's also something that that is I think, key to that community aspect is that they are members that have really no issue in opening their doors for others to come and visit and see each other's facilities, walk through the factories, see what they're doing, how they're doing things and really discussing the practicalities of running your business.

Gary Pageau  4:33  
So the cornerstone of event, the flagship, if you will, is your annual global event. This year has a very long name. Can you tell us that name and where and when the event is?

Peter van Teeseling  4:50  
Yep. We'd be more than happy to do so. I mean, it's a bit tying back to what I said earlier. Right. So the history of the school being a once a year event and Will I see you at the school next year. I was into a direction some years ago is to define a new brand for our event and the brand name is h. So these big events are called Edge. And then yes, the next one that's coming up may 7 to 10. In St. Louis, USA is the Edge World Expo St. Louis, you know, and that is, I think the first time for a lot since 2019, we're back together in its full glory meeting with a solution showcase with HP bringing in printing presses that will be running on the Showcase floor, partners bringing their equipment finishing, embellishing the most of cool new stuff, again, live on the on the show floor. That's the flagship event that that's happening, he would be just fine. Calling it like that.

Gary Pageau  5:49  
So last year, you didn't have a have an event and the Dead Pixels Society was there participating with some sessions, and we're happy to say that, again, we're going to be there were some educational sessions specifically for the photo market. But these group has always had membership among the photo printing segment. Because I think because of the heritage of the Indigo press being kind of the cornerstone of the photo printing market, but there's other things other technologies, other services substrates that I think photo people will be interested in seeing at something like d scoop. Yes, and

Peter van Teeseling  6:25  
I think that's almost a bit of a transformation in the industry, right. So we're interests have been adding services and applications to their portfolio, you know, think about one example that stands out to me is visiting members around the globe, in my tenure with this group, and then walking into a photo site, you know, in sort of January, with once the lights out, because you know, the the peak season was was done. And they wouldn't open again until say Valentine's or something else. And I think those companies have been seeing, you know, opportunities and moving into certain commercial applications or others. And vice versa. So it's not necessarily exclusive photo. And I think that's where you see photo applications coming into commercial or ecommerce where there's lots of diversification happening. And and yeah, I think that's the nice thing about this group where you can actually rub shoulders with others that have either already done it and talk about their experiences, the good and the bad, and others that are planning to do it. And that that combination with vendors, suppliers that have you know, substrates or equipment, or software that can help them make those those transitions, and then the actual users themselves makes it just a really good environment and very, very safe. I mean, safe in the sense that there's people with the same mindset, they're there to sort of advance their, their their own case, right, whether that's individual professional or as a business. And ultimately, that's what drives them and makes it such a social and good environment to talk, talk business, talk professional, and really, you know, people walk away with great ideas, great connections, you know, future collaborations, as I used to say, while I still say, you know, it does lead lead to sort of friendships, partnerships, collaborations, mergers, acquisitions, weddings, you know, so it spans about everything, talk a

Gary Pageau  8:29  
little bit about the Dscoop program format, because unlike some other conferences you may attend to it's almost all inclusive type event, you don't really need to leave the event to go to dinner or something. There's something happening all the time. And it's sort of a mix of business, you have traditional sessions, you'll have keynote speakers, which I'm going to ask you about in a minute, some of those high profile speakers, but also the social events, these groups really built around that sort of building relationship type activity. So can you talk a little bit about some of this the individual breakout sessions or tracks they're going to be there? They may not necessarily photo but would be of interest to anyone? 

Peter van Teeseling  9:14  
Yeah. Well, as you said, Gary, let's say we're trying to build an all inclusive program. It's almost like an all inclusive resort. We don't want you to leave, right? We want you to consume everything that's available and provide something for everyone. There's a lot of dynamics. So you're going to you're you're meeting lots of different people, but we see the content as really a driver for conversation. So one is yes, there are great learnings. A lot of it is peer to peer so people can learn from each other as I mentioned that before. But we're also seeing that the industry evolve into realms like automation, robotics, but also on the logistics side. software automation, the software part, the automation software, part of automation. So think about like big data cybersecurity, those types of things. They know Not necessarily focused, yes, there is content for labels and packaging and commercial printers and publishing, and direct mail and PageWide and indigo a large format. And photo clearly is an important part of that as well. But there's also a lot of that sort of blended almost type of content. So it's, it's, it's interesting for many different kinds of business, I think an added bonus of the one we're doing in St. Louis, the this, this one coming up in May, is it's a global event. So that means we're bringing people together from around the globe, which will add a very different dimension as well, because then you'll have multiple aspects and multiple perspectives on certain certain topics. And we're gonna try and bring it together as much as we can. And again, these are fire starters for conversation for people that then go into the social events and continue, continue that conversation and talk through what what, what what are they seeing, and process that further, again, have them walk away with a very rich sort of backpack full of ideas and contexts contexts.

Gary Pageau  10:59  
You know, one of the things I think is valuable about the Dscoop program is not only will you have specific things for your type of business, but also you can see adjacent businesses, maybe they do similar things, but not quite the same way. And you can see how they do it. But also you just have general trending, how to run your business type tracks, like, you know, there's tracks there on sustainability, hiring, recruiting and retention, and supply chain issues and things like that. So really, someone could bring not only their leadership, but maybe some of their, you know, managers and that and I know people bring actual teams of their people to Dscoop, right?

Peter van Teeseling  11:41  
rYes. I mean, we see that a lot. Because what they do, I mean, the challenge, usually when you go to an event is there is a lot of content, right? So how much can you as an individual absorb on a single track, but now multiply that by by multiple tracks we have, other than the keynotes, we've got 42 breakout sessions, that will happen across today, on a Monday afternoon, or Tuesday afternoon. So there's going to be multiple things happening at the same time. And this is where we see the benefits of of members bringing multiple people so they bring their leadership, but they also bring, for example, the operators, operations managers. And now we're seeing expansion into, for example, the realm of developers and it because it's tying into what's happening in the industry, and trying to cater for different groups. And an important part is also for them to get together because you don't often as business owners, you get to meet at conferences and other events. But when you are in to the operational the company or possibly in sales and marketing, you don't necessarily get to meet your peers almost. And I think that's that environment that we want to try and create where these different groups, they they mix and mingle, but they also can can congregate together. Like what we're doing with you and collaboration with a photo track is bringing the people that, that have that feel, that feel connected to the photo part of their business, or want to break into that, that even as as as newcomers, and again, they can learn from each other, you know, and either you bump into each other, or you get introduced to each other. And in those sessions or in the hallways or in the social events that again, happened throughout that entire two and a half days.

Gary Pageau  13:25  
So can you talk about the keynotes, you've announced a couple of high profile speakers, and I think that is that these are speakers that are going to be worth watching. I remember last year the savannah banana guy was was a big hit. And this year, I think you've even gone up a step up eclipsed him,

Peter van Teeseling  13:43  
it will be hard to eclipse because certainly the Jessi Cole or the savannah banana guy, I would say a I we looked at all the ratings in the past 18 years of conference keynotes. And he he, he he's number one, what was amazing

Gary Pageau  13:57  
about him was he stayed throughout much of the conference. He was around a lot. He didn't just do his speech and then leave he hung out for a while.

Peter van Teeseling  14:07  
Yes, yes. And I think I think that's yeah, I mean, he was super engaging. And, you know, I love that type of session where there is no, there's no slides. There's just a lot of things to learn from. And I mean, he had people standing on their chairs and dancing and people dancing on stage. And I think that was the scoop. Anyway, he was one of those keynotes that sort of you don't necessarily yet know. And it's a big surprise. Right. So it's, it's almost under promise and over over deliver, I think, you know, coming again, coming out of the situation where last year we had no equipment, we almost couldn't have the event. You remember this from the days when we were planning and it was it was it became pretty it came very close to not happening. It happened in the end with over 800 people there. And I think now with with the security, the conviction we have and the confidence we Have that everything is happening as normal. Many things are coming back to normal, we still see supply chain issues in the industry clean. So but you know, we we have the we know HP is bringing their Indigos to the Showcase floor, there'll be running on the Showcase floor. We expect a large global audience we said okay, how do we, how do we Yeah, put it put a name out there that we've been asked many, many, many times over many years to bring, and how can we make that happen? And I think now the constellation has been perfect for our students say, Okay, we were asked to recruit a big name. We were asked specifically to bring a specific name. And, you know, we're delighted that we were able to make it work. And so we're excited to have Earvin Magic Johnson as the as the keynote on the afternoon to speak with our audience for an hour. And I mean, that's like a whole different league. We've we've had Steve Wozniak a couple of years ago, one of the co founders of Apple. That was a, it was a pretty epic experience. But it's more of a niche. And now we're saying, Hey, okay, it's global. We want What are common themes that people attract to sports and music

Gary Pageau  16:12  
and movies, he brought his movie theaters. And so yeah, I think he I think he has brought appeal, and I was excited to see him being added to the docket. And that has nothing to do with the fact that I'm permitted Michigan as well, that has nothing to do with it. And I'm down the street from Michigan State that has nothing to do with that.

Peter van Teeseling  16:29  
No, no, no, no, no. Well, I'm not have less of an American sort of essence. So but I, I talked to many people, and they they all know him, right? So there's, sometimes you have it, like you have a big name in your mind. And you mentioned it, and then you have four or five people and always there's one that's like, Who's that it's not there's not happened in this case. So you know, yes, it's a it's a big leap forward. But I think it's a validation, I think of the community and their commitment and wanting to you know,

Gary Pageau  17:02  
Yeah, because last year's event was an excellent event, but it certainly wasn't, you know, the full blown the Dscoop Edge event. And I think this one, if you look at the program is going to be be that

Peter van Teeseling  17:17  
correct? Yep. Yep. Yeah. No, and we are happy with the program. Right. So as I said, we have 40 plus breakout sessions. HP were running and make it real track for for operations and being very hands on in Magic Johnson is one of the keynotes. The other keynotes, I'm also quite excited about this is a gentleman whose name doesn't necessarily ring a bell, by itself, his name is Mark Schulman. But he's the drummer for Pink and Foreigner. And if you watch and that certainly rings a bell with many people. And I think that will be a fantastic opening.

Gary Pageau  17:54  
So one of the reasons why people really enjoy Dscoop is the celebration party, this is something that kind of caps off the Dscoop experience. Can you talk a little bit about that and why people if they are planning to go go to Dscoop, you should stay the extra night and go to the celebration party? What is the plan for this year.

Peter van Teeseling  18:20  
So the plan for this year is that usually the Dscoop conference happens at at a resort to Gaylord resorts, which is quite, you know, favorite for our community because it means we sort of take over the resort. And that means wherever you go, if you go to an outlet to get a coffee or in an elevator in the gym, you will bump in on that is from your same community and it really builds those friendship. Now we're in downtown St. Louis, and it's all very compact. And we wanted again to give something extra to the or to the community and we're taking the party, the dinner and party on the Tuesday night off site to a venue called the city museum. It's a short walk. But it's it's a fantastic factory. It used to be a huge factory. So it's eight floors. And they have completely built an experience inside that building with all repurposed materials. You'll see factory things there's there's a there's a part of a ceiling that has like cloth hanging from the ceilings, which is made from old parachutes. There's a whole main with caves and stuff that they've made with with building remnants. There's a slide that goes from laid down there's a skatepark I think the largest fencer, which is an official Guinness record is in the building as well. And yeah, we'll take over the building and it will have you know, live music, DJ food and drinks. And again, it's it's part of that social experience. Having people you know, meet each other talk to each other in an A social comfortable environment. And but yes, I mean, over the years, there are some really good stories about the parties, and we do it at the at Omaha sort of the last day of the event. So it's all also a celebration of what's happened the days where and all the hard work that everyone put in, because I think that's an important element as well as, although we as I work with a team of 18, although we sort of do the work, but we are guided and led by our team members that dedicated their time and energy and give us ideas and, you know, want to make this the best experience possible for for our members. And I think that makes it makes it so powerful, because we can do lots of good things, but it has the spirit and the soul of our members that they put in. And I think even with

Gary Pageau  20:47  
the staff, you know, nearly 20 people putting together an event like that couldn't happen without a lot of dedication from your membership and leadership.

Peter van Teeseling  20:57  
Yes, yes. And also from from from all our members, right. So we have our printing supplier members, we have our partners, the sponsors that that make a substantial contribution, but also in time and energy, like we have an advisory council, they advise us at an HP as an executive sponsor is equally important to help make that happen. So sort of our team balloons as we prepare for this event, lots of people that we don't necessarily directly see, but they're working on the on the event itself.

Gary Pageau  21:26  
So if someone were interested in getting information if they had never attended, I do Dscoop Edge before and we certainly encourage them to work in they go for more information because there's several ways you can do it correct. You can there's almost like a package deal for teams, right?

Peter van Teeseling  21:43  
Correct. Yes. So yes, the every all the information is on our website, the Dscoopedge.com And there are individual registrations, but there's also group registration. So if you want to bring multiple from your company, we have a pretty sweet deal. That is buy three get four which gives you a nice discount on the registration. So we do encourage teams to do that and making sure that everyone understands as you said before, right so basically you from start to finish you're more or less looked after you don't have to go anywhere else that is all covered in the registration so it's not just going to an event paying an access fee and and paying for everything else around it. The registration fee covers your not your stay or your travel rights accommodation and travel is on your own. However, you know from Sunday afternoon to Wednesday lunchtime, you are looked after with with social social events, the party, the education, the lunch breaks during the event, the coffee breaks, the tea breaks, everything is part of that that fee so it's as I said, it's almost like an all inclusive resort you pay once you get the wristband and or in this case, you get a badge. And that means you have freedom to roam the entire event the showcase with all the exhibitors all the sessions, they're they're free for you to attend. And then the keynotes with Magic Johnson and Mark show.

Gary Pageau  23:09  
Peter, thank you so much for your time and for sharing the vision and the details of the scoop that once again is Dscoopedge.com. And look forward to seeing you in St. Louis, in May. And thank you very much.

Peter van Teeseling  23:25  
Well thanks, Gary, for having me and I look forward again to to another successful year of collaboration.

Erin Manning  23:32  
Thank you for listening to The Dead Pixels Society Podcast. Read more great stories and sign up for the newsletter at www.thedeadpixelssociety.com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai