One Spark Questions

[Cheshire Cat]

Couldn't have said it better myself Stephen.....yea, mark this day down

Fact is I've been out at the festival every day...and the buzz just keeps building....if even one creative person from Jax thinking of leaving instead stays here because of this festival, it was a success!

Agree on both counts.  We will see a bigger and better event next year and I am sure there will be many good connections "sparked" during the event and lots more in the way of interesting stories and experiences to be told in the days to come. 

[Cheshire Cat]

This:

Stephendare 
But to be honest I think Jax has suffered from a couple of generations of people who are more eager to tear down from jealousy and schadenfreude than gain through a collection of successes, and to be honest, Im sick of it.

Which is the sentiment behind my continued posts to this thread.

[Cheshire Cat]

Entertainment district is buzzing tonight until 2:00AM.  Here is what is happening.

http://beonespark.tumblr.com/post/48121436137/entertainment-district-events

[Charles Hunter]

Don't know how typical I am, but am well over 30 and figured out how to register, and have voted for (or will vote for, I have some voting to do tonight) more than one creator.

Don't know if the One Spark folks have a venue for soliciting comments, and hope they will drop in here.  I know there is some overlap between OneSpark and MetroJacksonville people.

My experience today was similar to what others have reported here - that creators are getting tongue-tied from having gone over their same spiel so many times.  One apologized a couple times for tripping over his words, saying he'd been on his feet for 12 hours a day for 3 days.

Anyway, my comments

• Voting is unclear - for example are the Art people competing against the business people against the non-profits?  That doesn't seem fair, for the "best" artist to get less than the "best" tech idea.  Not sure what the solution is, but something the OneSpark folks should ponder.
• Is it true that everyone who gets even one vote gets a piece of the $250,000?  That dilutes the prize for the "winners" - top vote getters.  Perhaps only the top [pick a number] vote recipients should divide the money proportionally.  Although I know the value of each vote will go down as more votes come in, but what good is it going to do for someone who only get one vote to get $12.50?
• Why are some of the commercial ventures there - The Carling?  Really?
• The website needs work, you can't 'search' for exhibitors - fortunately you can in the phone app.
• It is great to lots of people downtown!

[02roadking]

Once You log on, click the box in the upper left corner. You will open a drop down. Type their number or name, enter. Click the creator and you will go to a vote tab. Repeat for more entries.       
Money is divided by percentages. 10% = 25,000

[fieldafm]

But to be honest I think Jax has suffered from a couple of generations of people who are more eager to tear down from jealousy and schadenfreude than gain through a collection of successes, and to be honest, Im sick of it.

I 100 percent agree with Stephen here.  I think there is legitimate debate warranted for what should and should nr have happened this weekend... But calling it a failure is about as far away from reality as possible.  I have found something I have always known to be true, this city is filed with innovative and creative people who simply need an avenue in order to follow their own path.  In that sense, One Spark was an undeniable success. 

I'd be happy to discuss how to improve the event (and there are legitimate opportunities to improve it) but I simply cannot in any way, shape or form call this anything short of a success. 

[Bill Hoff]

I'd be happy to discuss how to improve the event (and there are legitimate opportunities to improve it) but I simply cannot in any way, shape or form call this anything short of a success.

A great 5 days. With that said, here are my two improvements for next year - less spread out & the event schedule/voting process should be better advertised.

Fantastic job by the organizers and a definite 'A' for a first year event with so many unknowns.

[Charles Hunter]

Once You log on, click the box in the upper left corner. You will open a drop down. Type their number or name, enter. Click the creator and you will go to a vote tab. Repeat for more entries.       
Money is divided by percentages. 10% = 25,000

Are we looking at different One Spark websites?
In the upper left is the One Spark logo - which is the Home Page button
Next to that is the Discover button - where you can find Creators, Venues/Events and Speakers
Clicking the Creators button does yield a drop-down, but in gives a list of the categories - no place to type in anything.
None of the other top menus lead to anywhere to type in "creator" info.
Tried in both FireFox and IE (latest versions of each).

Another thought - although from the reports above, doesn't seem to be an issue - limit the number of votes people can make - make us think a little more if we only have, say 10 votes, about just voting for a creator because they smiled at me during their pitch.  Or maybe a smaller number per category.

So, if 10% of the votes = $25,000 everyone is competing against everyone.  OK, I get that.  Doesn't address if there is a "bottom" - if my idea for an Acme Road Runner Catcher only gets my vote and a Mr. Coyote's vote (2), that is still a percentage of the total votes.  Even at yesterday's 20,000 votes, my 2 votes would be 1/100 of 1% or $25.  (Which matches the $12.50/vote value yesterday.  Of course, as more total votes come in, the cash value of my 2 votes goes down - at some point making it more costly to cut the check than the value of the check.

And this isn't a really big deal to me, just indulging my MetroJacksonville right to obsess over small details. 

[dougskiles]

I'd be happy to discuss how to improve the event (and there are legitimate opportunities to improve it) but I simply cannot in any way, shape or form call this anything short of a success.

A great 5 days. With that said, here are my two improvements for next year - less spread out & the event schedule/voting process should be better advertised.

Fantastic job by the organizers and a definite 'A' for a first year event with so many unknowns.

I've heard others mention the desire for a more compact layout.  However, I liked it spread out.  I was more relaxed having a little more space around the exhibitors than at a typical festival where people are always squeezing by.  And, it drew me to places that I otherwise wouldn't have gone - for example the outdoor courtyard between Farah & Farah and Perdue Office Intereriors.  Each place took on its own style.  Except for the ones inside the TU Performing Arts building.  They were too isolated.

[TheCat]

I agree. I think there is a greater value to having it spread out through out the core then just at Hemming. Having it spread probably brings about repeated visits. Hit one section one night and another the next.

[spyrals]

I agree. I think there is a greater value to having it spread out through out the core then just at Hemming. Having it spread probably brings about repeated visits. Hit one section one night and another the next.

In other countries festivals like this are held in very tight spaces and they are extremely successful. I know that my parents in law didn't come to One Spark because they're older and didn't want to walk around for hours in the sun. A smaller space like other food, art and music festivals might be better in my opinion.

I keep waiting for an email or something about how many votes I got, how are the creators supposed to find out? Should we email One Spark? Im dying to know.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

My $.02 on the voting...

Since practically everyone has a smartphone, there should be several 'voter registration' stations with each attendee required to check in each day that they're at the event.  QR scan required to check in and register.

Each attendee is allowed (1) vote per creator per day with each creator assigned their own QR barcode loaded with all their pertinent information.  At each creator kiosk/setup, if you want to vote for them, scan their barcode.

Everything feeds into a database and the 'real-time' and 'transparency' issues fix themselves.

This seems like a no-brainer to me, but that's because I didn't have to plan for anything else regarding the event other than which food truck to eat at and my daily (flexible) limit of One Spark Kolsch to drink....

[tufsu1]

^ well the app did keep track of your votes....and because it was GPS enabled, you could not vote if you were outside of downtown

btw, the organizers realize that the voting process wasn't as intuitive as they thought it would be....I believe changes to that process are on the slate for next year.

Bottom line....from both a volunteer and attendee perspective, the festival was AMAZING!

[Charles Hunter]

No, I was able to vote from home - well outside DT - which I did because I couldn't "search" on the website.

I am sure the smart folks who put this together will make needed improvements before next time.

[Cheshire Cat]

That's strange Charles.  We only live 4 miles from the core and could not vote from Avondale.  I would have loved to do what you did.  Being able to vote from home gives one the opportunity to go through the information gathered during the event, evaluate what you saw and make your choices.  I expect we will see different voting parameters next year.