By Editor-in-Chief Morten B. Reitoft

Many of you are probably looking forward to attending the dscoop Edge event in Denver on March 8th. Once again, the Digital Solutions Cooperative meets with leading HP people, a vast number of HP Indigo users, and a few Latex and PageWide owners. The user group has a long history that goes back to the early Indigo days, and it’s a fascinating story, so why not dig into it and give you a new, fresh overview?

Dscoop was established under the name HP Indigo Customer Forum in 2005. Jack Glacken from Today’s Graphics is the official first chairman of Dscoop, according to his LinkedIn profile, serving from 2004 to 2009. Five years during which Dscoop was still a relatively small user group, still finding its shape and identity. It also seems, when reading articles on WhatTheyThink from back then, that it was a time with many things going on, and some of it is still not entirely easy to untangle. Jack Glacken didn’t start Dscoop from scratch because Dscoop was founded when HP withdrew its support from the existing Indigo Customer Exchange, known as ICE. About 250 Indigo customers were members of ICE and represented roughly one-third of all Indigo users at the time. ICE was an independent user group, and when HP decided to step away, the establishment of the HP Indigo Customer Forum – later renamed Dscoop – effectively replaced ICE with a structure that HP could engage with more formally.

That shift is important to understand. ICE had independence, but limited scale and perhaps limited strategic alignment with HP. By forming the HP Indigo Customer Forum, HP created a user platform that could be shaped in closer cooperation with the company. Over time, that platform evolved into Dscoop, and today it stands as the best-known user group in digital print. Estimates often mention more than 20,000 Indigo presses installed globally, and though not every customer is a Dscoop member, the community has grown massively compared to the early days. What started as a reaction to HP withdrawing support from one group has become a structured, global organization with chapters, sponsors, executive leadership, and a very clear position in the ecosystem.

Looking at Dscoop today, it serves multiple purposes. It is a user group where printers meet peers and share experiences. It is a networking platform where friendships are built, and sometimes lifelong relationships are formed. It is an educational environment where HP introduces new technology and where customers present case stories. And it is, undeniably, a very strong and unique HP Indigo marketing platform. That last point is not meant as criticism but as an observation. No other OEM in print has managed to build a community with the same level of emotional attachment and recurring attendance.

Talking to current members, many speak highly of the current executive leadership, which has turned the user group into a highly professional organization. Dscoop today is not an improvised gathering. It is run with structure, sponsorship models, curated content tracks, and international expansion. It delivers value to members, and partners often confirm that the networking and access to decision-makers justify their investment. We have only been to one Dscoop ourselves, also in Denver, and though it was held just after the COVID pandemic with fewer partners and fewer machines on the floor, it was still impressive to see the cohesion and the loyalty in the community. There is a sense that people are not just attending an event but returning to something they feel part of.

When you read through the history of Dscoop, certain names appear that today occupy entirely different positions in the industry. Eric Hawkinson is one example. Known today for his role in Innovatis, the company managing WhatTheyThink, he previously served as VP Marketing at Canon Solutions America and was instrumental in building the thINK event. It is hard not to see a connection between the Dscoop model and Canon’s later efforts to establish its own community. Another name is Francis McMahon, who worked in senior marketing roles at HP and today serves as President and CMO for Tecnau. These individuals, and many others behind the scenes, have influenced Dscoop enormously. The community has been shaped by strong personalities who understood that technology alone does not create loyalty; belonging does.

Despite the obvious success, Dscoop also faces criticism. Though many partners say they achieve a high return on partnering with Dscoop, the price of sponsorship is often mentioned in conversations. I haven’t seen official numbers – or to be more precise, I have not actively searched for them – but several partners privately question whether attendance levels are the same as in the earlier peak years. Others raise a more philosophical concern: has Dscoop become too commercial? When a user group becomes large, structured, and financially dependent on sponsorships, there is always a balance to manage between independence and alignment.

There have also been discussions over the years about HP’s financial involvement and whether Dscoop should ultimately stand on its own. From HP’s perspective, it makes strategic sense that a user community should become self-sustaining. From the community’s perspective, too much distance from HP could weaken the very access that makes Dscoop attractive. That tension is not necessarily negative; it may, in fact, be part of the dynamic that keeps the organization evolving.

What Dscoop has established over the years is remarkable. Besides the event itself, the organization has been strong in bringing leadership voices to the stage. CEOs share real numbers. Owners speak openly about investments. Case stories are presented by peers rather than by salespeople. There is a level of openness that is difficult to replicate in traditional trade show settings. At the same time, this is where one of the more subtle criticisms appears. Because Dscoop is so closely tied to HP Indigo, the critical perspective is naturally limited. You will hear about productivity, applications, growth, and success stories, but you are less likely to hear deep, uncomfortable discussions about total cost of ownership relative to competitors or about strategic alternatives outside the HP ecosystem.

And perhaps that is perfectly fair. Dscoop was never intended to be an independent media platform. It is a community around a technology platform. Expecting it to function as neutral journalism would be unrealistic. In that sense, it succeeds precisely because it does not try to be something it isn’t.

Whether Dscoop Edge in Denver will break attendance records or not is almost secondary. The real question is whether the community continues to feel authentic to its members. If the networking remains genuine, if HP continues to listen as much as it speaks, and if partners feel they are meeting decision-makers rather than just walking past booths, Dscoop will likely remain the gold standard for OEM user communities in print. The story that began with ICE and a relatively small group of Indigo pioneers has become one of the most influential ecosystems in digital printing. That alone makes it worth paying attention to, whether you are an Indigo user or not.