One Spark-ish

[TheCat]

Today we announced in Hemming Park that One Spark 2016 will be a two-day event featuring First Wednesday Spark Walk and a Creator Innovation Day!

Spark Walk will be a one-day event combining a One Spark Creator Showcase with the First Wednesday Art Walk on Wednesday, April 6 from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. in Downtown. It is designed to celebrate the creative energy of Northeast Florida Creators, innovators, entrepreneurs, and champions of meaningful social and cultural projects.

Creator Innovation Day, a celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship on the First Coast, will take place Thursday, April 7 at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront. This daylong program will include keynote addresses, expert presentations, panels, and breakout sessions offering practical advice about topics that will help entrepreneurs build, manage and lead their businesses.
To learn more, just head over to OneSpark.com!

https://www.facebook.com/BeOneSpark/posts/1026191034070999

[TheCat]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The One Spark crowdfunding festival is scaling back from the week-long event held in past years to two days this April.

The board, along with city leaders, outlined details Monday of the 2016 event, which will feature a First Wednesday Spark Walk from noon to 10 p.m. on April 6 and a Creator Innovation Day on April 7.

"One Spark has been an amenity for Jacksonville for a number of years now and has created amazing cultural energy downtown,” Downtown Vision Inc. CEO Jake Gordon said. "Spark Walk comes out of the downtown community's desire to keep this energy going and is a way to celebrate the innovation of our artists and entrepreneurs."

Wednesday's event will feature artists, performers and creators in and around Hemming Park, throughout a 15-block corridor on Adams and Laura streets and inside The Jacksonville Landing. There will also be a food truck village.

Up to 120 creators will be selected to participate and are encouraged to crowdfund, sell approved goods and collect donations.

Creator Innovation Day will take place the next day at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront.  This day-long program will include keynote addresses, expert presentations, panels and breakout sessions offering practical advice about topics that will help entrepreneurs build, manage and lead their businesses. 

Chairman Peter Rummell said the changes are necessary to strengthen One Spark.

“We have changed direction,” Rummell said. “We haven't gone from north to south. We've gone from north to northeast. We're in it for the long term. Everybody behind me is in it for the long term, and we're going to make it work.”

One Spark Ventures will preselect the top projects and invite those creators to participate in a Spark Tank event on Thursday, where the entrepreneurs can pitch their ideas in front of capital and angel investors.

“As One Spark works to reestablish itself and become a year-round vehicle for creator success, we are thrilled to offer entrepreneurs not only a platform to test their ideas and receive validation, but also an opportunity to educate themselves during our Creator Innovation Day,” Rummell said.  “This year’s event offers valuable opportunities for Creators, as well as entrepreneurs, investors, students and teachers to really understand the necessary steps to turn an idea into a success story.”

But not everyone is sold.

http://www.news4jax.com/community/one-spark/one-spark-accounces-plans-for-2-day-event

[TheCat]

One Spark will still be the party attendees have become used to in the last few years, but the scale will be smaller, and the focus on making startups viable will be key, according to key players in this year's event.

The festival portion of the event will kick off with a "Spark Walk" on April 6, which will have longer hours than the standard Art Walk, starting at noon and ending at 10 p.m.

One Spark COO Chris Byers compares the merged Art Walk and One Spark for April to some of Art Walk's larger events, like Oktoberfest Art Walk, which had a turnout of about 35,000. Byers said that's roughly what he's expecting for Spark Walk.

"There's no expectation that 300,000 people are going to come," Byers said, referencing One Spark's attendance numbers, which swelled over three years.

The Spark Walk event will extend over 15 blocks, and will include a Creator showcase, food trucks, as well as Art Walk artists and performers. The showcase will feature up to 120 Creators, who will be selected and invited to attend.
Creators will still be able to crowdfund, but One Spark has expanded their options. They will be able to sell products, as long as they are approved, and collect donations.

Spark Walk will also be tied into a Spark Walk After Dark event, which is hosted by The Elbow and will go on after the festival itself.
Although originally slated for three days, the festival has been shrunk down to two days. The second day, on April 7, will be focused on Creator development. One Spark Ventures, the new venture capital-focused wing of One Spark, will have a Spark Tank event on that day. Between 10 to 12 Creators will be selected for the Thursday event, with each Creator presenting their ideas in front of investors.
The top Creator from the Spark Tank event will get a seat in PS27 Ventures' accelerator program.

The Creator-targeted events will take place at the Hyatt Regency, and will include networking events, workshops on topics like lean business practice and marketing, as well as a One Spark hackathon, which both high school students and college students will be invited to participate in.

http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2016/02/15/one-spark-reveals-details-of-april-event.html

[Adam White]

wow. what a travesty.

Kind of "in like a lion, out like a lamb". Sad - One Spark seemed such an original idea and it had so much potential.

[BenderRodriguez]

One Spark really had the makings of a live Kickstarter/IndieGoGo with a hint of huge convention all wrapped in a stylish urban downtown setting. Yet, one more that we can toss into the dusty file cabinet of "city that could". This is really getting old, and I'm not even that old.

[thelakelander]

Interesting. Surprising that Friday was canned. Wasn't the weekends (when most are off work) the busiest days in past years?

[I-10east]

People often talk about Jax having 'black eyes' which I think is very overblown (this city actually hold it's own pretty well I think, of course nothing is perfect). This 1/3 Spark reduction is the biggest black eye that I can think of in recent history. Ooohh, Wed and Thurs, can't wait!!!What a flop SMH...

[thelakelander]

Is it a black eye? Festivals come and go, just like restaurants and clubs do. Seriously, I doubt anyone outside of Jax really cares.

[I-10east]

I thought that One Spark was gonna stick around and be something very special for the city. To see it become basically a mega art walk is disconcerting.

[Tacachale]

I always thought the biggest mistake of One Spark was the prize structure. The total was high ($2 million), but the individual awards were too low to attract the kind of talent they'd want. For instance, at Art Prize, the total prizes are actually lower, around $500k, but the top winner gets $200,000. They attract international talent with that kind of structure. The high total also meant it was unsustainable once the backers stopped their donations, which apparently happened sooner than expected.

But at any rate, it did prove that a big festival in Downtown Jacksonville can work. There are a lot of options that could succeed One Spark and be successful.

[ProjectMaximus]

Well, if it's any consolation I just read that Jazz Fest will be back in the core.

[brainstormer]

One Spark was fun while it lasted. It really sucks that the city is broke and can't pitch in to make it happen. It was a wonderful event and not having it on the weekend basically kills the event for good. I would have been fine with them just going back to a Friday-Sunday event. Still could have had the same charm as before. A little smaller footprint wouldn't have killed it as much as this plan. It sucks. Last year we had friends come visit that weekend and they loved it.

[hiddentrack]

Another possible contributing factor to the failure? "61% of Americans have never heard of the term 'crowdfunding'", according to a recent national poll by Pew. (Link)

[Alexsifakis]

Guys, Onespark was a HUGE success this year. Don't understand any of the negativity on this board. Did any of you actually go? Almost everyone who went to Onespark this year was wildly impressed - the streets were totally packed for "spark walk" Wednesday, there were over 70k people. And the conference was extremely well attended and got great reviews.

Quote from daily record article from a Microsoft exec:
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Jim Brisimitzis, general manager of Microsoft USA’s Startup Program. “And I never expected to see it in Jacksonville.”

Most importantly - it has a sustainable financial model now - so it will be back next year - hopefully in a slightly expanded format.

Couple articles:
https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=547356
http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2016/04/07/after-crowds-turn-up-for-spark-walk-where-does-one.html

[TheCat]

Guys, Onespark was a HUGE success this year. Don't understand any of the negativity on this board. Did any of you actually go? Almost everyone who went to Onespark this year was wildly impressed - the streets were totally packed for "spark walk" Wednesday, there were over 70k people. And the conference was extremely well attended and got great reviews.

Quote from daily record article from a Microsoft exec:
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Jim Brisimitzis, general manager of Microsoft USA’s Startup Program. “And I never expected to see it in Jacksonville.”

Most importantly - it has a sustainable financial model now - so it will be back next year - hopefully in a slightly expanded format.

Couple articles:
https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=547356
http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2016/04/07/after-crowds-turn-up-for-spark-walk-where-does-one.html

I went and it was enjoyable as an Art Walk, Special Edition.

Aside from reading the links you sent, I am in the dark as to what a creator hopes to gain from the process nor do I know how the "crowd' actually engages with the event.

It was fun seeing product concepts as presented at a booth but there isn't any actual funding happening, right?

Extrapolating from the articles you linked to, it seems like the "inner circle" was pleased. People enjoy events.

If it is about having a street party, then Spark Walk was a success and but that has always been the case. One Spark brought and engaged people on a fairly spectacular level for a Jacksonville event but it's a totally different thing now...it was never clear what the old thing was and it's definitely not clear what the new thing is.

I wouldn't read to much into Brizimizis quote. He's selling a product/service and even if he wasn't I'm pretty sure he's not going to say something derogatory when micrsoft products are the top prizes for the event. The more entertaining quote from the daily record:

Brisimitzis said after experiencing Spark Walk on Wednesday, followed by Spark Tank and the daylong One Spark Innovation Day conference at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront, “there is something here.”

Ya got potential, kid. Ya got potential.