One Spark was an annual
crowdfunding festival held in
Downtown Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
, United States. In the event, "creators" displayed projects in various categories (including art, innovation, music, science, social good, and technology) and crowdfunded from attendees. The event also offered opportunities for private investment in projects as well as speakers, music, and entertainment. The event launched in 2013.
History
Development
One Spark was conceived in 2011 by Elton Rivas, Dennis Eusebio, and Varick Rosete, three young professionals involved in Jacksonville's
startup scene. Inspired by
Brad Feld
Brad Feld (born December 1, 1965) is an American entrepreneur, author, blogger, and venture capitalist at Foundry Group in Boulder, Colorado, a firm he started with partners Seth Levine, Ryan McIntyre, and Jason Mendelson.
Feld began financing t ...
's book ''Startup Communities'', Rivas wanted to develop Jacksonville's startup culture rather than moving elsewhere.
The organizers modeled One Spark after events like
ArtPrize and
South by Southwest, planning a festival where inventors, entrepreneurs, and artists could present their projects, with attendees voting on which ones would receive the prize money.
The project gained momentum when the organizers of a similar proposed event, an arts festival to be called the Epoch Project, suspended operations in June 2012 due to lack of funds and endorsed One Spark. One Spark achieved its goal of $300,000 in private donations in August 2012, and was able to hire a full-time staff to organize the event. By October, they had secured sponsors for $250,000 in prize money, and raised $90,000 to underwrite event costs via
Kickstarter.
The primary financial backer was former
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
and
St. Joe Company
The St. Joe Company is a land development company headquartered in Panama City Beach, Florida. Founded in 1936 and until 1966 known as St. Joe Paper Company, the company still operates a forestry division but is primarily engaged in real estate d ...
executive
Peter Rummell, who contributed $750,000 to the project.
[
]
Events
The first One Spark was held from April 17–21, 2013, and featured the work of about 900 "creators", which were displayed in venues across Downtown Jacksonville. The festival attracted an estimated crowd of 130,000 over five days. For 2014, the festival increased the payout, adding juried prizes and bonus awards to the crowdfunded amount. Additionally, a group of investors led by Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team pla ...
owner Shad Khan pledged an amount up to $3.25 million in private investments in individual projects. The event ran from April 9–13, 2014.[
Founders Rivas, Eusebio and Rosete served on One Spark's Board of Directors.] Jacksonville marketing executive Joe Sampson replaced Rivas as executive director in 2013.
One Spark 2013
One Spark’s inaugural event was held from April 9–13, 2014 had 130,000 attendees, 59 venues, 900 creators with 406 participating creator projects, 553 trained volunteers, and over 53,000 unique votes distributing the $250,000 crowdfund. Creators had access to this crowdfund by receiving votes from the festival visitors.
The festival was held in downtown Jacksonville, Florida, from April 17–21, 2013. The event featured pitch decks, where successful entrepreneurs shared their experience, music stages, food and beer villages.
Winners are...
One Spark 2014
One Spark's second event was held April 9–13, 2014 and had an attendance of 260,000 people with 610 creators. 120,493 votes were cast distributing $310,000.
One Spark Berlin
In 2014, the festival's organizers announced a second event, One Spark START: Berlin, would be held from September 12–13, 2014 in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
's Mitte area. Former Jacksonville resident Travis Todd serves as managing director. Unlike the Jacksonville event's street festival atmosphere, One Spark Berlin is a contained location event at the PLATOON KUNSTHALLE.
One Spark 2015
One Spark's third event was held April 7–12, 2015 in downtown Jacksonville. It holds the record for highest attendance for a One Spark event at over 320,000. One Spark claims it was the world's largest crowdfunding event.
One Spark 2016
Organizers retooled One Spark for 2016, held April 6–7. For financial reasons, the event was shortened to two days; prizes were reduced and the contributor list shrank. The street festival portion of the event was combined with Downtown Jacksonville's monthly Art Walk into a joint "Spark Walk" on Wednesday, April 6. Thursday, April 7 featured a One Spark Innovation Day convention, including speakers on creator development and venture capital topics, and a "Spark Tank" event, where judges ranked the creators. One Spark estimated an attendance of 70,000 for Spark Walk.
One Spark 2017
At a press conference at EverBank Field
TIAA Bank Field is an American football stadium located in Jacksonville, Florida, that primarily serves as the home facility of the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL) and the headquarters of the professional wrestling prom ...
on June 19, 2017, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry
Leonard Boyd Curry (born July 19, 1970) is an American politician, accountant, and businessman serving as the 8th mayor of Jacksonville, Florida. He assumed office on July 1, 2015, after defeating incumbent Alvin Brown in the city's 2015 mayoral ...
and One Spark organizers announced that the 2017 festival would be held at U.S. Assure Club West at EverBank Field on October 6–7, with a concert held at Daily's Place
Daily's Place is an amphitheater in Downtown Jacksonville, Florida. The venue is connected to the south end of TIAA Bank Field and shares space with a "flex field" indoor practice facility for the Jacksonville Jaguars. It opened in May 2017 and ...
on October 5. Bold Events will host up to 150 creators in five Spark Zones. Tickets will cost $5 to pre-register, and $10 on the day of the festival. However, due to the arrival of Hurricane Irma
Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread destruction across its path in September 2017. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Maria two ...
and the subsequent cleanup and restoration efforts, this has since been postponed, making 2017 the first year since its debut in which a One Spark festival was not hosted. The next One Spark festival was scheduled for April 6–7, 2018.
One Spark 2018
One Spark announces return of entrepreneurial festival.
Event structure
One Spark is a multi-day event where creators, artists, entrepreneurs, and innovators can display projects in a multi-venue gallery in downtown Jacksonville
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
. One Spark objective is to connect people with great ideas to the resources they need to make them a reality. It’s a community behind great ideas.
One Spark is open to everyone. Creator projects can be at any stage of development. The event is built on the premise that great creations can come from garages, small studios, and dorm rooms and that the only thing that separates them from the big dogs is access to capital and resources. The selection process for One Spark is completely independent. In 2013, 2014, and 2015 Jacksonville events, venues select which Creators showcase in their spaces and attendees decide who gets funded. Showcasing at One Spark gives you access to thousands of dollars in crowdfunds and awards, millions in potential capital investments, and direct individual contributions from all the visitors. Beginning for One Spark 2015, a jury committee made up of subject matter experts and industry thought-leaders, sponsors and investors will select Creators for participation in each District.
The festival provides the perfect platform to put any idea in front of thousands of people, validate it and receive valuable feedback. As an attendee, people have the opportunity to witness the latest innovations and the power to make them a reality by casting votes towards their favorite project.
Prizes
In addition to the direct contributions by attendees to creators, from 2013 to 2015, One Spark provided additional prize money to creators, including a centralized crowdfund, juried prizes, and direct investment opportunities.
Creators have been able raise money in four different ways:
#Wowing attendees and collecting votes to score a piece of the crowdfund. Whatever percentage of the vote a project receives, that's how much of the crowdfund they earn.
#Attendees can contribute directly to projects in any dollar amount.
#Industry experts will jury an additional prize money to innovative projects in each category. The top vote getters in each category will also get the opportunity to get additional bonus prizes.
#Millions in potential capital investments from investors attending the festival looking for new opportunities.
Creator projects
The essence of the event are the Creator projects. People can visit Creators as they demonstrate their ideas in Venues located throughout downtown Jacksonville. People can contribute to the ones they want to see funded.
Creators are people with ideas in art, innovation, music, science, and technology that turn them into Projects to showcase at the festival. A Project is a specific plan, design or undertaking with a clear end. A Project can be at any stage of development but will eventually be completed, and something will be produced as a result.
Pitch Decks
Pitch Decks are platform for Creators to reach a large audience and communicate their ideas in a short period of time. Creators are scheduled to take on the stage and pitch their Projects to a larger audience. This helps promote their idea and increase their chance of getting funded.
Entertainment, food and beer
The event features first-rate entertainment all day and well into the night. Attendees can also visit Food Villages featuring exclusive tastes from some of the city’s best chefs and favorite food trucks. There is also a Beer Village where visitors can get locally crafted beer.
One Spark After Dark
Creators and attendees have the opportunity to network and enjoy in local pubs, bars, and special VIP Lounges. Parties and live entertainment are all around.
For Kids
This event is designed for everyone. Families can bring their kids and let them experience innovation first-hand and enjoy plenty of kid-centric programming. There are different activities programmed every day to create a more engaging experience for the little ones of the family. Activities will be published during the month of March.
Past Event Details
Speakers Series 2014
Speakers at One Spark 2014 are pioneers, disruptors and visionaries with big ideas to share. 2014 Speaker Series Features World's Top Minds in Design, Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Some of the keynote speakers for this year’s series are Scott Stratten, world-renowned social marketing expert and president of Un-Marketing from Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
, Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, and James White, accomplished artist and designer and founder of Signalnoise Studio from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
, Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. In 2014 the series takes place on Thursday, April 10 and Friday, April 11 during One Spark with a different track each day. Speaker Doc Waller, inspiration architect at Becoming Possible from Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...
, will emcee the two-day event and will be joined by the musical stylings of Dr. Scott Padgett, music writer and producer from Columbia, South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
.
Speakers Series 2016
The second day of One Spark 2016 featured speakers that focused on creator development and venture capital; it was held in the Hyatt Regency on April 7.
Attendance history
References
{{coord missing, Jacksonville
Annual events in Florida
Crowdfunding
Cultural festivals in the United States
Culture of Jacksonville, Florida
Recurring events established in 2013
Tourist attractions in Jacksonville, Florida
2013 establishments in Florida
Events in Jacksonville, Florida