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FuturePrint Podcast
#253 The Power of Community: The Dscoop Success Story
For twenty years, Dscoop (Digital Solutions Cooperative) has created one of the print industry's most powerful communities – a global network where HP digital print users share knowledge, solve problems together, and accelerate innovation.
In this fascinating conversation, Marcus speaks with Peter van Teeseling, Executive Director of Dscoop, and Amir Raziel, Head of Global Strategy for HP Industrial Print, about the unique partnership that has transformed digital printing. "The decision to make Dscoop an independent organization has created that environment where we have our own space to play in and HP has their own space, and where there is overlap, that's where magic happens," explains Peter.
This magic manifests in tangible business outcomes. Members can instantly tap into global expertise when facing challenges, reducing risk and compressing learning cycles from months to days. During the pandemic, Dscoop members formed impromptu networks to share materials and regional insights. A quarterly leadership call connecting 100 volunteer leaders across continents became a permanent fixture, allowing businesses of all sizes to benefit from global market intelligence.
What makes Dscoop particularly powerful is its culture of openness. "There's an element of trust which is very unique to this group," notes Amir. Unlike traditional industry associations where competitors guard their secrets, Dscoop members willingly share both successes and failures. This transparency creates what Peter calls "a shared brain" that accelerates innovation far beyond what any single organization could achieve alone.
As the industry confronts transformative technologies like AI and automation, Dscoop continues to evolve, providing curated learning experiences that help members navigate complexity and seize new opportunities. The results speak for themselves – members consistently rate the business impact of their participation at nearly 9 out of 10.
Whether you're an HP digital print user looking to grow, a supplier seeking deeper customer connections, or simply curious about how communities can drive industry transformation, this conversation offers invaluable insights into the power of collaborative innovation. As Amir powerfully states: "The future of the print industry is ours to create... the more we collaborate, the better we will be."
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FuturePrint TECH: Industrial Print: 21-22 January '26, Munich, Germany
Welcome to the latest edition of the FuturePrint podcast. I've got a doubleheader today with two big hitters in the industry. I hope they don't mind me defining them as that Peter Van Teesling, who is Executive Director of Dscoop. Welcome to the podcast, peter. I know you and I know all the great work you've done with Dscoop, creating an amazing community. So we're going to be talking around Dscoop and the importance of community. Also joining us is head of global strategy now for HP Industrial Print and he's become quite a famous face on our Futureprint platform. So welcome back to the podcast. Amir Raziel.
Speaker 2:Thank you, marcus, good to be here.
Speaker 1:Excellent. So, gents, yeah, we're going to be exploring the importance of community, among other things. This is these groupies are particularly inspiring example of how communities can really foster change and transformation as well, so we're going to go into that in a minute, but before we go into the questions, starting with you piece it, give us a little bit about your backstory and so on in an instruction to yourself. I think that people would be interested in hearing that well.
Speaker 3:Thank you, marcus, thanks for having us, and I'm either good to see you, as always. Yeah, so my name is Peter, I am am Dutch. I'm the executive director of D-Scoop, which means I'm in the fortunate position to lead the organization of D-Scoop. I also am the father of three sons, husband to my wife, anouk, and I've been in printing for a long time. I stumbled into printing that's a long, long story but for the last 15 years I've been um I I was being exposed to d scoop and uh have been uh completely um enamored by it, started in helping to build out the community in uh in europe, middle east and africa and, since a couple of years, in the fortunate position to lead globally. Um, I think I've said it a few times. You know this is one of the I I would say one of the greatest positions to have in in printing.
Speaker 3:I get to work with people like amir and organizations like hp and our suppliers and and all the creative minds within our industry. Um, and yeah, I mean that's our passion. Is is making our members feel proud about the work they do and driving the transformation of the industry, and it's grown in 20 years We'll talk about it in a second to this massive global movement, but it's still extremely personal, and I think that's the biggest part of this D-Scoop thing. You get to meet people from anywhere on the planet and work together and learn from them, whether that's from a converter in Kenya and doing compostable packaging to a very large scale converter in Brazil or an innovative commercial printer in Japan. There's this connectivity and there's this sort of chemistry between these people that makes it such a yeah, a very rewarding uh organization to work for yeah, I've attended not recently, but I have attended at eScoop before and it is um, it is.
Speaker 1:It's a joyous kind of coming together of people and it's also very focused on development, and I'm struck by how comfortable people are to share their stories and everything else. So, yeah, we'll find out more about that. Thanks for that intro, peter and amir.
Speaker 2:Give us a little intro for yourself and what it is you do for hp so, um, I we've talked about this before, but today I'm the, the global head of strategy for industrial print, or hp's industrial print.
Speaker 2:It means that I look at at our business, I look at the print industry and I look at where the print industry is heading and I try to make sure that we're aiming our business in the right direction. And that right direction essentially starts with our customers, the print service providers, the converters, and that's maybe the link to what Peter was saying. For us, strategy and innovation has to be rooted in customer needs, in customer feedback, in what the PSPs, the converters, in what the industry needs to grow, and we'll talk about it more, but that's one of the great benefits of an organization like this group is that it allows you know, technology and community to come together. So I've been at HP for 20 years celebrating my 20th years today in a variety of roles, from operations working with product development, to product management and sales, key account management and now strategy, and always, always, always, thinking about our customers. That's the main thing I would say.
Speaker 1:Brilliant. Thank you, yeah, and with community in mind, and actually Dscoop as well, both of you really, starting with Peter, your organizations obviously have worked together for two decades, but they're separate, aren't they? They're not Dscoop and part of HBSI. What do you?
Speaker 3:think has kept that relationship so strong and productive over time. Peter, yeah, so this is our 20th anniversary and, if you think back 20 years in time, completely different era, different priorities but we're in the fortunate position that we have members that are still coming back after 20 years. So one of our founders is a gentleman named Jack Blacken and I was sort of recounting the story of how it started 20 years ago and Jack made sort of a statement 20 years ago that he said you know, it's really this concept of it's it's. There was a new technology digital printing relatively new. It was. It's really this concept of it's it's. There was a new technology digital printing relatively new it was, it was up and coming, but still needed a lot of development and innovation and creativity.
Speaker 3:And the statement he made then is about pooling resources between HP that owned in, that acquired Indigo, the suppliers that feed the printers and then converters and then the printers themselves. If you pull those three resources together, then you are actually creating a force that is very, very powerful and strong to drive that innovation and even influence the strategy, as Amir was saying, of where is this going, where do we want to take this? This and he was the first one that sort of stepped across a line, uh, between um, you know, customers that were trying to find new ways of driving this technology, and then with hp, and you know that's the starting point of d scoop and it's this this group is short for digital solutions cooperative, and it's really it is that it's those three parties that play a very important role in increasing that size of of of that pie, and I think that's the decision to make d scoop. An independent organization has created that environment where we have d scoop has their own space to play in and hp has their own space, and that's that's when there is the overlap.
Speaker 3:I think that's where a lot of magic, uh, uh happens, and that's allowed it to stay so productive over time, because the needs have changed also over time. And I think customers are very agile, hp is very agile, suppliers are very agile, so they keep almost reinventing themselves but create, staying relevant every single step of the way, and you know that's where we we've made it 20 years, which I think is quite unique in an environment like this, but also being very forward-looking and saying, hey, what does the next 20 years look like and how do we make that happen. So I think that's how it's kept its attraction and it's kept its relevance for our members and for HP and for the suppliers.
Speaker 1:Thank you, amir. Anything you'd like to add to that, really from an HP perspective?
Speaker 2:I think you know you look, and I was reflecting on this as we were preparing, for you know, we were thinking about the podcast and in our chat and I was reflecting on what makes the partnership really strong. And I was reflecting on what makes the partnership really strong and I think the first and foremost, you know, the two organizations share a vision to advance digital print right. We all come and everybody comes in to a D-Scoop event or to D-Scoop with the same objectives. That's what enables the collaboration, the sharing. That's the basic of it. We're all there for a single, same purpose and what this group has been able to do is take it and build a community-first approach.
Speaker 2:It's about the members. They make the decisions. We get a chance to impact because we're part of it, but it's not an HP thing. It's the members who define. How do they want to learn, how do they want to collaborate. Now, what that does for HP is it allows us a place to gain direct customer feedback, to fuel innovation From a vendor perspective. Do you know how valuable it is to sit through a three-day event that has? You know how many people do we have in Long Beach, peter?
Speaker 3:1,300.
Speaker 2:That has 1,300 people from HP, from partners, from our customers, and show what you're working on and get direct feedback whether it holds value or not, and and and that that's priceless. Priceless now, by the way, it's prices for us, but I think it's probably for the members because they can understand where the industry is going. Um, and the last point I want to mention is this long-term commitment. Right, we're here talking about 20 years. Long-term commitment. We're here talking about 20 years.
Speaker 2:This isn't a one-off or a two-off or something that just happened. It's being there year after year after year and creating those relationships and that ability to pick up the phone and say to somebody you've met a few years ago, but you've met at this group and have a chat with them, and there are people on the board or people you know, customers that I meet every year at Descope right, year after year after year after year, and that just that enables so much, and it enables us to do so much in the business, you know, to advance digital print in general. That's what I love about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, to advance digital print in general. That's what I love about it. Yeah, and maybe I can just add one thing and also from the customer and the supplier perspective, is the ability to connect directly whether it's with leadership at HP or it is the engineers behind the technology, on how certain things work, and having that level playing field, for, whether it's a company that's just starting into digital or one that's super mature and, and you know, just orders a whole new fleet of equipment, that sort of type of access that they share between each other. Uh, I think that's priceless. And and and also from a you see collaborations between the printers, you see collaborate in the converters, but also between, and obviously with the suppliers and with HP, but there's also between the suppliers. You see collaborations and innovations happening, which I think is also quite unique Because, at the end of the day, everyone's, they're all competing with each other, right?
Speaker 3:Whether these are the converters or the printers, but also the suppliers, they compete with each other, each other, right, whether these are the converters or the printers, but also the suppliers, they compete with each other. But when they get together and we have this shared objective, as as as amir said, right, because, if you think about this. The more brands and consumers buy digital print, the better it is for these three parties, and that that's what binds them and and what creates that continuous vibe for for collaboration, collaboration and being productive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I guess as much as anything else, it's about the mindset of the people coming. It's about that willingness and confidence to be open and yes, of course everybody competes for share of revenue and customers, but fundamentally you're getting more from that than being closed away and not engaging. I can tell I imagine there's a certain type of person that this is just perfect for.
Speaker 2:There's an element of openness and trust which is very unique to this group and you know I'm not sure that everybody gets it, especially when you know different parts of the printing industry could be more closed off and more restrictive about what they share, and especially looking historically back. But once you flip that and somebody coming into dschool for the first time realizes this, there's trust, there's a shared goal, there's a shared success and people are really open. That openness is is, in fact, infectious, right, it grows, you know it grows and it becomes and it's it's what drives, what drives progress yeah, yeah, it's a lot of fun to see, by the way it's, it's yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's.
Speaker 3:You hear people that actually like attending an event. Obviously, this group is bigger than just a once a year event, right, so we have a lot of activity. We have 23,000 users now globally, but I think what we're seeing is that openness that you're referencing, amir, that creates that emotional connection between them. Right, it creates a sense of excitement about potential for the industry, but it also creates like a collective, larger voice and advocating for digital print, whether that's in bringing in students coming into the event, bringing in some of the brands to share. And, again, this level playing field is, yes, you have these larger corporations that are part of it as well, but they also understand that it's by sharing and giving back that you create this environment for innovation and you keep driving the future of this industry.
Speaker 1:And I guess in a time where speed, quality, adaptability are perhaps more critical than ever before. You kind of hinted a bit already on this, so you certainly answered this question, but in a way but I'm sure you'll expand a bit more what unique role do communities like Dscoop play that perhaps no product or platform can? I don't know if that's Peter's or.
Speaker 3:Amir's? Yeah, I mean, I think Amir mentioned it right. So the openness and the trust that Dscoop sort of enables like we don't create it right, we can't just say, okay, here's a seal of trust but I think it's that mindset that people buy into that concept of Dscoop, which I appreciate isn't maybe for everyone, but it's very much welcoming in for anyone, right, as long as the mindset is there that you are there to contribute to like a common cause. That just moves away a lot of barriers. The way I tend to explain it is you know, they've seen the whites of each other's eyes at the bar at a d scoop event or or have bumped into each other in a session and it turns out, hey, I'm dealing with this, I'm I'm trying to solve it by myself, but here's someone that's that's going the same journey and it turns out, oh, I'm not alone. So you know, it makes them again think about it faster. But it also creates this shared brain and diverse thinking, diverse opinions and diverse inputs.
Speaker 3:That just is an accelerant, I think, in many cases, for innovation. You see it, sometimes you see people bumping into each other. They're having a conversation, a third person comes by and they meet up, or whether that's, throughout, just a simple message that one sends to the other because they're back at their desk and thinking about something. It just makes things move much faster. But that principle of this sort of trusted third-party element that we provide. I mean, hp has obviously great technology, but it takes the people and it takes the, the, the brains, to then take it to another level almost, and and I think that's that combination, where you have the existing platform that hp provides, which is this shared technology, makes it super simple. We just outsource work to each other. They just pick up the phone and say I've got this project, I need to deliver tomorrow in in sydney or in in japan, you who can help me, and they make that connection and it's just there. It's a given that you trust each other in that case.
Speaker 1:And I guess what we're saying there, the event, is a really critical aspect of that coming together, making those connections, opening your mind, taking us. We all spend too much time working in our businesses and I guess what dscoot really enables people to do is to work on them. You know, rather than and um and that, and that's amazing, and, like you say, that human connection and helps problem solving, ignites new ideas, builds confidence, so I can see exactly where the value is. And then, like you say, the events are fantastic, again, manifestation of the spirit and the experience. But actually it continues after, and there's lots of other things you do too which we'll find out about.
Speaker 1:So, um, give us a bit of an example. Some, both hp and d scoop, really um, pg. You've already mentioned an example there, really, but what have you seen happen when print businesses stop working in those silos? Like I said, that every industry has silos and we're all sort of working and we're all doing our best, but sometimes you need to come out of those silos. But give us an example of how you've seen this sort of start, break down those silos and the value of that.
Speaker 2:Well, maybe I'll start, but I think we spoke about it already in a bit. When you know, this is like an infectious spread of ideas, right? You have an organization like this, you enable ideas to spread quicker, to spread quicker, and when you have the PSPs or the converters, look at what other people are doing it inspires them right, and so it inspires them to be bolder, to move faster, which is something we try to do, especially when we enter new markets and you try to get people from this new market to come in and then listen to someone who's made it. And then people come up and do these events and they talk not only about what worked and the beauty of it but say, by the way, here is where I failed, here is what went wrong, here is what I would do different. And then think about it. Where I failed, here's what went wrong, here's what I would do different. Right, and then think about it. I mean, you're sitting in front of someone who is in your industry, in your line of business. His day-to-day is, even if in a different geography, but it's still very similar to what you're facing, and suddenly he's telling you this is a great thing, but be careful, don't do one, two, three, priceless right, and so when you do that, you get real business impact. You're able to do things better, and then everybody levels up right. That's the beauty of it, and I've seen it.
Speaker 2:You know, part of my career in Europe was in building up the flexible packaging business for HP in Europe was in building up the flexible packaging business for HP, and I've seen, you know, one of my goals coming in, and this was 2016, 2017,. One of my goals was to build up this community of early flexible packaging converters leveraging digital print and to see what happens when you know, when they start talking to each other. Now you know that what also happens is they start talking to each other. Now you know that. What also happens is they start talking to each other and say, hey, by the way, are you facing this technical issue? And then they come back to us and tell us well, you know we have this issue, but not only us, but two or three others. We have to deal with it, but the outcome is good for everybody. It's good for them because we solve it, and it's good for us because we here at Venetian, we're able to solve it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely and Peter. Anything you want to add there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think what it does, mark, is it changes the mindset of thinking, almost within your box, of what you can do or what the technology allows you to do. Right, and it it it makes you think very. You can think very, very big and very, very different. So one example of of how it has direct impact is that we have member, we have printer converters that use their dscoop membership being part of a global network when they submit rfps, for example, because it it it just opens them up, they suddenly become a global provider of of printed products and they can't do that if they are just thinking by themselves. Their reach is pretty limited. Uh, I'm not saying limited, but it's, but it's sort of constrained Local yeah.
Speaker 3:It's local almost, and in this case they can become global providers. Right, and they can work. That elevates their profile. But it also makes them think, in this case, bigger. It makes them say yes to projects that they may not necessarily be able to say yes to. So I'm here to your example about flexible packaging. Okay, here's a converter providing flexible packaging. Okay, here's a converter providing flexible packaging, and that's what they do. But suddenly the brand is asking for commercial or for something publishing or or or labels. They can say yes to those things because they have the network they can easily extend into um and it. It just makes them think more about opportunity than restrictions in this case. So I see that element of yeah, being able to say yes to many more things than they can do before.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I guess it's a network they can trust as well. Right, because I know there is. I would imagine people are trying to solve these things, but there's a level of risk, obviously, and you're trying to bring this just shortcuts and you can. You can access, like you say, a global network that you can trust, which is huge, I think. So the collaboration between a tech leader like HP and a community led network like D Scoop and a community-led network like Dscoop. What makes it work then? Because, to some extent, a community is sort of for the community and HP is a large business that, at the end of the day, needs to drive revenues. Is there any sort of tension or conflict or is it just harmonious and it's just win-win? What makes it work?
Speaker 2:I don't think that it's all roses and candlelight and dancing. We sit at the board by the way, I'm not part of it, but HP management, or parts of HP management, sit at the board of this group and we we we will have arguments and we will argue about where we want to take this and you know how much is it for members and how much do we allow others in and where is the direction. I think in the end that's why everybody is focusing about creating value and the HP mindset, the HP business model, the very fundamental part of it, is about win-win. When our customers thrive, they print more. When they print more, we thrive, we can develop more, and it's this cycle that B-Scoop just helps accelerate. And when you take that and you create the value and you think of the ecosystem and you do it for a long time, it feeds itself and again and again and again. To me that's the big point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, to be honest, there should be a level of abrasion in this partnership, because actually, that's because the energy is pointing in the right direction and that's where you get the best value, really, isn't it? If it was harmonious and that it would be a little bit, it wouldn't be dynamic, really would it, I guess? And that it would be a little bit, uh, it wouldn't be dynamic, really would it, I guess? Um, so, the value to hp in the collaboration, beyond events and beyond platforms, you know, um, the, the value is a commercial one. The value is is learning as much as anything else. Tell us, amir, what you pinpoint, really, the value being the value?
Speaker 2:well, look, the value is the deep, ongoing partnership with the people who use and shape our technology every day. Right, it's, you know, it's gaining customer insight at scale. Right, we get a direct, unfiltered view into the needs, challenges and ideas that Dscoop members have. That helps us build better solutions, and faster. And that, you know, and by staying close to these guys, because these are our most engaged users. Right, so the people who come to these groups, who spend their time and money one, they see the value, but two, they want to do this. Right so when we stay close to them, we can move faster, iterate quickly and make sure that we're aligned to what our customers care about most. Sure, that we're aligned to what our customers care about most. And I think we said the word partnership or community a lot, but this is having stronger, longer lasting relationships with our customer base. I mean, that's like I said, it's priceless. And then the outcome is this industry leadership that hopefully we gain right, but, but.
Speaker 1:But that's what helps you to move things.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, yeah, very clear and but honestly no, just just to say that the, the partnership with with d scoop for us is I I you know, in my eyes, looking back over the last 20 years, is one of one of the key elements of success for HP, for the Indigo business and now for the PageRite business. It's a key element of what helped us thrive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, fantastic. And maybe Peter, or both of you. Really, I'm just sort of keen to know a bit more. Could you walk us through a moment, perhaps, where the HP Desco ecosystem helped a business overcome something big, whether that was launching something new or new tech or finding new customers or solving a crisis? It'd be interesting to hear an example.
Speaker 3:I have a few. I think, you know, it's hard to imagine a bigger crisis than what we saw a couple of years ago with COVID and the subsequent supply chain challenges, and this is, I think, where the global network really came to life. There's lots of examples, big and small, of a printer getting stuck and saying he needs something delivered to a customer on the other side of the world and can it be done? Yes, be done. Yes, you know it's a connection and they solve it within a day. But I think what we saw with this, with, like, the global challenges let's take supply chain as a, as a, as an example we saw community, smaller communities, getting together within our membership and collaborating on sourcing material, so helping each other out hey, I've got this material and someone else needed it, so they were sharing those resources and they were able to do it because of that. Again, that sense of community and that, that sense of of collaboration. And I think another example is about um. Like we have all these, like printers and converters, big and small, and you have the smaller ones that want to be big, for example, and they want to learn from the others. The bigger ones have this sense of sharing and giving back and this openness that amir referenced before, and they are willing to help the others right and and and. So what we see there is this, this willingness to share on how things are working. So imagine that they you can walk into another member's uh factory and talk about different things and how they're doing certain things. It's not necessarily the polished demo and the specs of the product that's like a given, but then it's how does it sort of work in real life?
Speaker 3:And we had a, an example recently of a company in the US that was thinking about okay, how do we scale our business to the next level? And what they did is they went to some of our events globally. Right, so we are year round, not just once a year, conference. We do smaller events, bigger events. We have this online community that's very active, and they were able to connect to other printers that they saw as that's the level we want to go to. And, lo and behold, they said, oh sure, come on over, come on by and we'll show you how this works. And they got the real learnings and then, partnering with HP, said, okay, we have the confidence in the technology. We know it's going to work. Now we've seen it in real life. We've been shown a way of how we can grow. You know, and they make the investments and you know they are, they're starting to, they're on stage three or four of their of their growth and acceleration, and then it leads them to really making that possible.
Speaker 3:That is just. You cannot do that sort of by yourself, and I think this is the beauty of back to that collaboration as well. Yes, you know where there's friction. There's cool stuff happening. I think that's always interesting. But what I appreciate from a dscoop perspective is that the HP organization knows okay, this is where we stop and this is where dscoop begins. So we have this clarity. It's always moving right Because it's dynamic, as you mentioned. But that creates this sense of agility and speed and acceleration that we can work on within our own environments. And then when you see this happening with the customers, the printers, converters and the suppliers, together they come up with new things and grow, and that makes it fascinating.
Speaker 3:And, just as a remnant of what we did during COVID, we have a leadership of about 100 volunteers. So these are business owners and leaders that get together and support us on a month-to-month basis. As we say, they come up with the ideas and they task us as an organization to execute. So we brought everyone together because there was so many. Things were moving fast. So hp contributed in giving insights on what markets were developing and how volumes were growing and declines, and insights in supply chains.
Speaker 3:And then the customers. The members were talking to each other about oh, how do you deal with this? Because one country was way more advanced than the other and that's now become a staple. This group basically insists getting together every quarter. There's 100 people on this call from Japan to Latin America and we go around the world and say, hey, what's happening in your country? And that's such a rich environment that they look forward to doing that. They like spending an hour together and learning from each other, and the big can learn from the small and the Europeans can learn from Latin Americans and the Asians can learn from the Americans and the Americans can learn from the Africans. That's just, that's priceless. I think Yamir, you used that word before. I think that's a priceless environment to be in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's a fantastically global one as well. Like you said, that sort of learning from different challenges in different places and also understanding different cultures, and that's enriching and educational, I think one of the words that strikes me if I was thinking of joining DScript but I'm not applicable for me really because I'm not an hp printer but it's that also a sense of belonging, that I think it's a fundamental human thing. That's incredibly powerful. Um talking a little from that on to sort of tech really, because of course that's um a key factor in the industry we're in and obviously hp are innovating and developing and leading in that field. How do you see the next wave of technology, like ai, automation, sustainability, shaping the future of the print community? And and perhaps what role do d scoop and hp play in helping members to adapt? You kind of said a lot already and I know a lot of it's about members helping one another, but I guess that's a key issue isn't it Helping people fathom this new tech? Because it could be seen as a constant challenge to keep up?
Speaker 3:What kind of help do you provide?
Speaker 3:So, yeah, maybe I'll take this first. I mean, I think one of the things that we try to do is to facilitate those interactions. So it's not necessarily that we don't educate but we facilitate. So we facilitate those conversations, but we also facilitate the automation.
Speaker 3:Okay, one is obviously to talk about the technology and how it can drive you know new ways of running a factory, nonstop printing lights out, printing those types of things, but how does it impact your organization and how do you adapt to it? Right, it's not just implementing something new, but, okay, how do you handle it? It's not just implementing something new, but how do you handle it. And I think that's where there is a path, where we because we're so close, I think, to our members that we're in dialogue all the time and understand what is it that they're looking for, what is it that they want to learn or talk about, and then trying to figure out, okay, what's the constellation of how this can work and accelerate. But I think, the ability to discover those things really quickly, other than implementing it in your own business and exploring what's happening, this is where things get compressed and go really fast. Right, and they can go much faster, because if four or five are in different stages of adopting new technologies, you know that suddenly becomes just a super short cycle of implementing something new.
Speaker 3:And this is, I think, again where the combination of these different companies in different stages of that adoption are really fast. Adoption are really fast and again, I think they can give back to people like Amir is their direct feedback and their direct opinion. And it's not a oh, we've run a test and here's a report. No, it's, we're running into this problem and being very tactile and how do we solve this? Or we have this idea, how can we make this happen. And this is where, again, these constellations of these three entities just work much faster than anything else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and also, like you were saying earlier, I can see that adds agility and speed, but also it de-risks a lot of decisions as well. I would imagine and you know, members being prepared to say I tried this, it didn't work, don't do it, you know, and that saves a lot of time and a lot of pain and a lot of money, I would imagine.
Speaker 2:Anything you want to add to that, amir, I think when you said AI automation, sustainability we can add a couple of words there, or some of our previous discussions, I think those are questions that business owners and the print industry are asking themselves day in, day out. And then when they ask themselves, okay, well, how do I find out more? One of the first answers was is Descope, not as an event, but as an educational platform, and the content that is on an ongoing basis. Descope as an organization shares out. So if you're a business owner, you can come in and say, all right, I want to learn about artificial intelligence. What does these groups' educational platform have to offer me? That's, you know that's a fast path forward.
Speaker 2:And then you get into events like Long Beach. You know that we just went through less than a month ago and one of the decisions Peter and the team made was that you know they wanted a lot of the focus of the event to be around artificial intelligence and around automation, right? So you know, as an example from the last last event, not only did we have keynote speakers that spoke about the transition that the world is going through to AI, and but we also had the HP part of showing our advances in artificial intelligence. We're heading with the intelligent automation platform and on top of that, you had specific sessions talking about AI and implementation from the users and we brought in startups around AI that talked about what can be done. So you're walking through the showcase and you're talking to.
Speaker 2:I have a business card from a company called Hexsite who is doing AI-driven supply chain planning, right. But if you remember, supply chain agility was one of the topics we talked about in our future trends and suddenly you're sitting there and you have this intersection both AI and supply chain agility and you have someone who's dealing with this on the day-to-day. So you talk to her and you learn about this, right. So when we identify something, I guess well, not we, but when this group as an organization, the board identifies something like this, you can act on it and tailor the learning experience on the trend and what it means. So for me, that was one of the. You know, looking back at the disco, plonk beach was one of the great benefits of the of the event. It wasn't, you know, it was about print, but not only it was about you know, big part if you, if you want to know about the biggest thing impacting our day-to-day, which is artificial intelligence. You want to learn about what it means for the print industry. That was the place to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I can see that a lot of it is about reducing complexity, isn't it Because we are privy to so much information? If you have that focused, laser-like kind of delivery of content, that's also been curated like you do as well, right? So you don't just let anybody speak, do you? It's like you really think, think about it. So, yeah, sorry, was anything you wanted to say there, peter I was just saying.
Speaker 3:I mean, one of the things obviously is is that, you see, in this sort of rapid or accelerated adoption, or at least evaluation, is, like you said before, okay, here's a way. I found that it doesn't work right, which is good. I think the other side of that is that you also see, I've tried this and this is how it's working really well. So so it's not just so. So, basically, it's saying, okay, you're not going to give back only the ways that it doesn't work, but you're also giving back the ways that it does work. And I think that's where you see things going on top of each other.
Speaker 3:And, as a simple example, we have a video on our website of the first flexible packaging converter in Africa the first 20,000 that went into Kenya.
Speaker 3:It's a young company. They actually decided to invest in the technology back in 2015 in dublin and he now sits on our ema board of directors. But the way he talks about sustainability and compostability, he doesn't have the ability to just source the materials and get a supplier in and fix it. No, he had to source materials from three or four different countries, built the own product by himself, create samples, dig a hole, put it in the hole, test it, because the compostability and I was sharing this with a large converter in the us and they're like, oh, the light bulb went on us how they could actually develop their own concept of compostability, seeing someone with limited resources to develop it, but finding a way of how it works. And this is, I think, what is what is so fascinating about um, yes, you know fast, you fail faster sometimes, but you also innovate and and come up with good ideas faster yeah, it's inspiring, isn't it?
Speaker 1:I mean, it's that sense of um, you know people pointing you in a certain direction. You still, as an individual business leader, have to make it happen, but it's, I guess it gives you more confidence from a trusted source to try new things out and innovate quicker, as you said, which is fantastic.
Speaker 3:And it's real. And it's real in the sense that it's actually's, actually, you know, almost you know, uh, tested in real life environments and it's like this giant incubator. Everyone's doing little things by themselves, but they're sharing this back and and this creates this larger movement, totally yeah yeah, sounds awesome.
Speaker 1:um, so, if somebody's listening to this and few people, and a number of people will be listening, of course, but I'm thinking this sounds interesting I'd be really keen in getting involved. What would you say to print leaders who are not yet part of this ecosystem, and perhaps what are they missing by staying on the sidelines? Really?
Speaker 3:Mir, you want to go?
Speaker 2:first, you know, I think, this whole podcast. We're saying the same thing on this. In my eyes, if you're using HP technology with the industrial print whether it's Indigo or PageWise if you're a partner or a potential partner that have an offering in that ecosystem, or if you have an impact in the industry from a thought leadership or from an analysis perspective, d-scoop is an essential part of where you want to be. If you're not there, find the right way to get involved. Talk to one of the members. Don't talk to us. I mean don't talk to HP, but you can. We'll happily talk about it for hours and hours. Talk to the members, talk to them, listen from them firsthand and, in my eyes, if you're not part of it, you're missing you're at a disadvantage in a way, peter.
Speaker 1:Anything you'd like to add to that really?
Speaker 3:I mean to what Amir said well, maybe no, but I'll add my two cents. I think a couple of things. One, yes, it's the networking and it's that feeling good about the work that you do, but more importantly, it's the impact that it delivers on your business. Yes, you have the friendships. Yes, you can talk to someone if you're not doing well. But statistically and sort of, we survey our members on a regular basis and we ask this question okay, that's all this great stuff, you go to this great event, you can call anyone.
Speaker 3:But here's the deal how does it impact your business? And we ask this question that, on a scale of one to 10, how does your DSCOPE engagement influence or impact your business? And one is negative, and two and ten, obviously, is highly positive, and the ratings are, you know, close to 8.7, 8.8 out of 10, and so that means that it actually makes a difference. Uh, yes, you need to buy into it. If it's not for everyone, I get it. It's not a cult, it's not a secret society. It's very welcoming and I think there's a willingness for people to talk to each other and listen to each other and help each other yeah, and it's about growth, isn't it?
Speaker 1:it's about growing your business, about a lot of things, and that's a lot of just positivity in the whole thing that I'm getting from it, and it's and it's also, and also.
Speaker 3:One element is growing as an individual, as a, as a, as a professional, because it gives you confidence. I mean, look at the event we just did 1300 people and our mc is one of our members right, it's a, it's a. It's a lady running a print business, uh, but she's on stage, uh, and they get this ability to to again grow as an individual as well fantastic.
Speaker 1:So thanks both for for joining us. Any sort of final thoughts you might want to leave with? And also in our show notes we'll put links to peter and to d scoop and, and I know you mentioned long beach, but the event moves each year, doesn't it? It doesn't stay in one place. That's also a good thing. So you're connecting with um different communities all the time. Yeah, how do they join? How does someone join?
Speaker 3:Basically check out dscopecom. That's where you have a join button and you can sign up. As you're sharing my connection details, feel free to reach out to me directly and, again, we are more than happy to speak to anyone, ask us anything. Essentially, but, yeah, check out. And then also, if you want to stay up to date of what's happening, for example, on our social profiles, there's a lot of activity and I think that's the biggest thing that we try to do is share those stories from our members. What are the printers and converters and the suppliers and HP are doing and giving a lot of visibility to that, and that's a great way to stay informed. And yes, there's events happening around the globe. You can go to Dscoop almost any time, but, as we say, you know, dscoop is 24-7 online as well.
Speaker 1:Brilliant. Thanks, peter Amir. Any final thoughts?
Speaker 2:Maybe I'll finish with what I started and a bit what I was talking about throughout this chat. The future of the print industry is ours to create, and it's something that it depends on the converters, the print service providers, the vendors, the ink manufacturers, the machine manufacturers, the workflow people and, whether we like it or not, we're a community and the more we cooperate, the more we collaborate, the better we will be as an industry, the better we will be as an industry. So that's my you know anyone listening that's my call to action is more collaboration, more sharing. It is a win-win. It's not one company against the other, you know. It's all of us looking to make that transition of a physical product in what is becoming an ever increasingly digital world. So that's my thing kind of thoughts.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. Well listen. Thanks both for joining us. Really interesting conversation. Well done both of you for continuing to grow and develop um this fantastic community, and um been a pleasure talking with you both and um yeah, thank you very much, thank you, marcus.
Speaker 3:thank you, I'm here always good, marcus. Thank you mar much. Thank you, marcus. Thank you, amir, always good Thank you, Marcus.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Marcus and Peter, as always.
