One Spark returning for 2017

[KenFSU]

One Spark taking place in the West Club area at Everbank Field on Friday, October 6th and Saturday, October 7th.

Concert at Daily's Place on Thursday night, October 5th to kick off the event.

Bold Events hosting.

Up to 150 creators will be invited.

Will be a ticketed event, $5 with pre-registration, $10 day of.

Sounds like a very different, much smaller event, without the positive externalities for the downtown core. 

[remc86007]

Wish it were going to be downtown, but it's better to have it happen than not. At least Intuition and Manifest can make some money...

[Tacachale]

Sounds like a very different, much smaller event, without the positive externalities for the downtown core.

Yeah, but those "externalities" were just window dressing to distract people from the fact of what One Spark actually was, a glorified invention convention with a street party tacked on.  This is much closer to what it actually sold itself as, instead of what was produced.

True, but the street party was the part that actually worked. Too bad to see that go. Although if this even was announced with a different name than One Spark, it wouldn't seem disappointing in that regard.

[Adam White]

Sounds like a very different, much smaller event, without the positive externalities for the downtown core.

Yeah, but those "externalities" were just window dressing to distract people from the fact of what One Spark actually was, a glorified invention convention with a street party tacked on.  This is much closer to what it actually sold itself as, instead of what was produced.

True, but the street party was the part that actually worked. Too bad to see that go. Although if this even was announced with a different name than One Spark, it wouldn't seem disappointing in that regard.

Which makes you wonder if a street party/festival that didn't have a glorified invention convention is something that Jax would support.

[Adam White]

Sounds like a very different, much smaller event, without the positive externalities for the downtown core.

Yeah, but those "externalities" were just window dressing to distract people from the fact of what One Spark actually was, a glorified invention convention with a street party tacked on.  This is much closer to what it actually sold itself as, instead of what was produced.

True, but the street party was the part that actually worked. Too bad to see that go. Although if this even was announced with a different name than One Spark, it wouldn't seem disappointing in that regard.

Absolutely agreed.  Some sort of arts, culture and music festival would be awesome, but, how do you draw in that diverse of a crowd, without convincing (i.e. tricking) them into thinking they are attending some revolutionary, groundbreaking event?  If it's just a music festival, how do you pay good bands so people come out, and also get a diverse range of people?

Free pizza.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Sounds like a very different, much smaller event, without the positive externalities for the downtown core.

Yeah, but those "externalities" were just window dressing to distract people from the fact of what One Spark actually was, a glorified invention convention with a street party tacked on.  This is much closer to what it actually sold itself as, instead of what was produced.

True, but the street party was the part that actually worked. Too bad to see that go. Although if this even was announced with a different name than One Spark, it wouldn't seem disappointing in that regard.

Absolutely agreed.  Some sort of arts, culture and music festival would be awesome, but, how do you draw in that diverse of a crowd, without convincing (i.e. tricking) them into thinking they are attending some revolutionary, groundbreaking event?  If it's just a music festival, how do you pay good bands so people come out, and also get a diverse range of people?

Free pizza.

Hate to point out the obvious, but Rummel's gone because someone had to pay for all the 'free'.

And this isn't going to be 'free' either.  This is now a ticketed event.  And I'm pretty sure that this is going to count as one of the city events that the contract allows for.  This has all the appearances of a marketing ploy by Kahn's group to show others how their club areas do indeed double down as meeting / convention space than anything OneSpark had probably planned to put together. 

I wouldn't be surprised if they were contacted to put this on to use their branding as opposed to them reaching out looking for a place to host.

[remc86007]

One thing I never understood was how One Spark (gen 1) failed to monetize. Between the beer and food sales alone, if they took 25% they surely would have broken even. My understanding from people that worked at vendors at the festival was that the organizers did not do a great job of following up with vendors to pay their share.

Rummell said he lost $3.5 million over the first three years. By the third event, they had over 250k people there. Assuming the losses on the 3rd year were around $1 million, could they really not extract $4 from each attendee? I know I personally spent at least $50 at the event the third year...

[Tacachale]

IIRC, a lot of the budget was going to the prizes, which were never well distributed. The city was also putting in $150,000. The event probably could have been sustainable if they gave out less in prizes (that is, say $200k to a few winners, rather than $2 million divided in small amounts among 600+ creators), built up sponsorships, and found some form of revenue stream.

IMO, a big street festival of some kind could definitely work here. In a music festival, for instance, you could use the city contribution and sponsors to fund the actual street festival part and some free acts, and then charge for passes to see bigger bands in indoor venues. Alternately, ArtPrize in Grand Rapids I don't think has any ticketed events, but it's sustainable through sponsorships alone (and not handing over $2 million of one patron's money every year). I don't imagine that anything ticketed would be as big as the crowds One Spark was getting, but it would still be a big deal for Jax.

[Adam White]

Free pizza.

Hate to point out the obvious, but Rummel's gone because someone had to pay for all the 'free'.

And this isn't going to be 'free' either.  This is now a ticketed event.  And I'm pretty sure that this is going to count as one of the city events that the contract allows for.  This has all the appearances of a marketing ploy by Kahn's group to show others how their club areas do indeed double down as meeting / convention space than anything OneSpark had probably planned to put together. 

I wouldn't be surprised if they were contacted to put this on to use their branding as opposed to them reaching out looking for a place to host.

I appreciate you giving me the benefit of the doubt and acting as if my comment was meant to be taken seriously. I also appreciate that you apparently like pizza enough to see this as a plausible concept (barring the cost, of course).

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

I appreciate you giving me the benefit of the doubt and acting as if my comment was meant to be taken seriously. I also appreciate that you apparently like pizza enough to see this as a plausible concept (barring the cost, of course).

I wasn't.  I didn't.  I do.  Of course.

There were just lots of 'free' things that were touted during the original events.  Unfortunately, pizza was not one of them, but if it were, you can bet your ass that Rummell was the one who paid for it.

[tufsu1]

One thing I never understood was how One Spark (gen 1) failed to monetize. Between the beer and food sales alone, if they took 25% they surely would have broken even. My understanding from people that worked at vendors at the festival was that the organizers did not do a great job of following up with vendors to pay their share.

Rummell said he lost $3.5 million over the first three years. By the third event, they had over 250k people there. Assuming the losses on the 3rd year were around $1 million, could they really not extract $4 from each attendee? I know I personally spent at least $50 at the event the third year...

Because certain folks took exorbitant salaries and spent lavishly on computers and office space and other unnecessary crap.

or because it cost over $600,000 just to put the festival on - all those rented stages, police officers, and trash collectorion don't come cheap!

[RattlerGator]

This has all the appearances of a marketing ploy by Kahn's group to show others how their club areas do indeed double down as meeting / convention space than anything OneSpark had probably planned to put together. 

I wouldn't be surprised if they were contacted to put this on to use their branding as opposed to them reaching out looking for a place to host.

Okay, so you're using marketing ploy to be synonymous with proof-of-concept -- right?

Makes perfect sense to me. In fact, I can see this iteration of OneSpark developing (properly) back into a larger downtown festival but paying for itself as it grows and is re-embraced by the city.

This also has the added benefit of proving some on this board may have seriously underestimated (yet again) the Jaguars operation, especially their new Bold Events organization.

http://www.jaguars.com/news/article-JaguarsNews/Jacksonville-Jaguars-Introduce-Bold-Events/6e3a9580-4853-45c3-bdaa-9ac809cbebf2

They probably have people right now scouting out opportunities around the country to bring people and events to Downtown Jacksonville. And they have the funding to do so properly. Not just the funding, but six unique spaces for conferences or events, etc.

[1] Daily's Place Amphitheater

[2] Jaguars Exhibition Hall Flex Field

[3] US Assure Club East

[4] US Assure Club West

[5] Fields Auto Terrace Suite

[6] FanDuelVille

Y'all might as well give the Jaguars their props because they are going to earn mad props --nationally -- for this creativity. When they build their premier hotel and dress out their convention-hosting capability . . . wowza. Within the span of a few years, 2014-19, they will have COMPLETELY transformed the possibilities in Downtown Jacksonville and, in fact, the reality of Downtown Jacksonville.

There was a discussion the other day about a need for a Visitor Center in Jacksonville. If Iguana Investments Florida LLC, as part of The Shipyards development, includes a space that essentially replaces The Landing -- as I hope they do -- that could include a really viable Visitor Center. People keep talking about the Sports and Entertainment District as if it is too far East. That is a completely backwards way of looking at things. It is a phenomenal anchor that will lead to revitalization for all of Downtown Jacksonville.

These are *very* exciting times in Big Duval.

[Keith-N-Jax]

I agree RG but there is an obvious dislike for the Jags, Khan, and Lamping that is going around like an infection. Some of you seem to believe or at least feel that the core should be the only focus of development. I see all development  as positive whether it be South Bank, North Bank, Brooklyn or the DT core as positive. You can have other developments waiting on the whim hoping COJ pulls its head out of its A$$. You would have thought after hosting 2005 Super Bowl the city would have taken off but nothing really happened. I think we should be glad the sports district is improving.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

I agree RG but there is an obvious dislike for the Jags, Khan, and Lamping that is going around like an infection.

I love what the Jags ownership is doing. 

The dislike in my posts are directly solely at One Spark and their ginormous bungling what could have been a fantastic yearly event into the iteration we have today - basically a small convention.

I dislike the mayor propping this up as something it's not.  There won't be 250k people flowing through the doors and pouring in to downton to come and see this.  I think they'll be fortunate to sell 10k tickets with most of those people coming in, doing their thing and jetting right back out. 

This is a good move in a vacuum, but just a rather shitty deal overall when you include the overall benefit to the core of downtown.

[DTJAXEYE]

One Spark was good for me!  They left behind a ton of brand new office equipment.  I bought a brand new top of the line 24" Asus computer monitor from the building manager for $10!