150 Indian printers attend Dscoop Asia 2011 in Singapore

The event which featured more than 25 speakers from leading companies of the world, saw a turnout of over 1300 print firms from Asia Pacific equipping themselves with the knowledge, tools and resources to gain an edge in delivering invaluable products and solutions to the graphic arts community.

"Once again HP users from Asia Pacific came together to share, listen and learn. This year there were insightful breakout sessions for segment focused and business focused topics. The topics covered in the 29 sessions included general commercial printing, business and marketing, signages and displays, labels and packaging, publishing, photo and direct marketing. A site visit for each of these segments was organised by HP on 22 August, a day before the conference begun," said Fred Poonawala of Comart Lithographers who is a part of the Dscoop Steering Committee.

The four segments included: photo printing and publishing, general commercial printing, labels and packaging and signage and displays aprt from a visit to HP ink plant.

"Dscoop Asia has grown significantly since our formation last year followed by the inaugural conference in Seoul. Dscoop has done this by providing industry members in the region opportunities to build their knowledge along with partnerships, alliances, knowledge and relationships with their peers and industry leaders", said David Minnett, chairman of the Dscoop Asia Steering committee.


PrintWeek India, which was present at the event spoke to a few Indian printers.

While Saifee Makasarwala, COO, Silverpoint Press which recently installed a HP Indigo 3550 for short-run work, was keen on attending a session called Getting Your Colours Right by Yves Roussange of Colour Process; Janus Annunciation, director of Janus International which owns an HP Indigo ws4500 for labels, attended the sessions related to label industry consisting of presentations from brand owners like Coca Cola as well as a case study by an Asian printer on "Digital only Model" for printing of labels. "These sessions gave a clear understanding of how to utilise our machine and develop our business accordingly in a better way," said Annunciation.

This year there were sessions on large-format business and "we also invited our large-format customers like Spectrum Scan, Jumbo Digital, Printech Digital, Macromedia Digital Imaging and others from this segment to take advantage of this opportunity and benefit from sessions about business and operations," said Puneet Chadha, director, graphic solutions business for HP India.
 
Amit Shah of Spectrum Scan said: "This is my first visit to Dscoop and it comes across as an interactive platform for sharing best practices, exchanging ideas and experiences to learn from and take our respective businesses to the next level."

Digital Print Awards
HP Indigo’s strength in the digital photo printing segment was evident from the fact that Delhi-based Colour Campus emerged as an overall grand winner from across all the categories and all the companies from Asia Pacific and Japan which participated with 470 entries for the 13 categories from across 14 countries at the HP Digital Print Awards. It won the award for a coffe table book printed on HP Indigo.

The other winning company from India was Thomson Press India which won an award in the category called offset vs digital. An applications gallery was laid out to showcase the work done by Asia Pacific and Japan printers on HP Indigo machines. Majority of the work showcased belonged to print companies from India. It included Meher Services India which owns HP 5500, Essel Propack (HP WS6000), Perfact Color Digital (HP 5500), Moserbaer India (WS4050), PM Digital Products (HP 3500), and Venus Album India (HP 5500).  

"HP Indigo has close to 94 installations in India out of which 31 are in the photo printing segment. It’s great to see Indian print companies gaining a strong foothold in the global market with HP Indigo and emerging victorious while competing with their counterparts from Asia Pacific and Japan," said Appadurai, country business manager - Indigo and inkjet business solutions at Hewlett-Packard

HP collaborates with Dscoop Asia 2011
According to Alon Bar Shany, vice-president and general manager, HP - Indigo division, "Asia is a booming economic hub and digital is a sector which is growing fast." At Dscoop, HP laid a strong and aggressive emphasis on finding willing customers with healthy bottom-lines and help them grow their business.

On 24 August 2011, HP announced at a press conference about its collaboration with Dscoop Asia 2011 which will enable its customers and partners to have access to a digital printing ecosystem that comprises of like-minded individuals "who will help to foster a culture of innovation in digital printing," said Christopher Morgan, senior vice president, graphics solutions business for IPG at HP.   

"We have an integral role to play in contributing to the development of the graphic arts ecosystem as an enabler of digital printing innovation and transformation as the industry transitions from analogue to digital," said Gido van Praag, vice president of Graphics Solutions Business, Imaging and Printing Group, Asia Pacific and Japan. "The success of the Dscoop Asia conference reinforces this positive momentum in the transformation from analogue to digital printing".

Throughout the year, HP also announced a range of new digital product offerings in anticipation of customers evolving needs including: Introduction of the new HP inkjet web press in Asia Pacific - HP T300 colour inkjet web press. The HP Scitex LX850 printer was unveiled for the first time in Asia Pacific during the 19th Shanghai International Advertising & Sign Technology & Equipment Exhibition. The LX850 printer is a 126-inch (3.2 m) latex ink printer. The new line of Designjet printers- HP Designjet T1300 ePrinter and HP Designjet T790 ePrinter, are web-connected and ePrint-enabled, allowing businesses to access web content from anywhere, anytime wherever business happens. 

Glimpses from the event