One Spark returning for 2017

Started by KenFSU, June 16, 2017, 01:32:39 PM

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RattlerGator

#30
June 21, 2017, 05:00:51 PM
Well, I love the Weaver Family and they've been good to Jacksonville. But the Super Bowl they brought to Jax proved the event requires a bigger hotel capacity than we had and a bigger entertainment vibe than we had. Or likely will have in the near future.

Shad is capable, however, of being the impetus that essentially changes everything in Downtown Jacksonville. People of the urban core seem to hate to hear that, they hate to contemplate it, but that is the fact of the matter. That's the lens from which I view this reincarnation of OneSpark. Non-RedNeck Westsider, I don't think we benefit from looking at this "new" event from the perspective of anything less than a three-to-five year timeframe.

Time will tell. This article, "Activating the Shipyards"

http://jacksonville.com/j-magazine/2017-06-16/activating-shipyards

draws the correct parallel of Shad Khan to Dan Gilbert, a Detroit boy who owns the Cleveland Cavaliers and has served as the impetus for the transformation of downtown Cleveland.

Duval: so much opportunity in Downtown, so much potential. This is the time to make shiznit happen.

Non-RedNeck Westsider

#31
June 22, 2017, 11:41:45 AM
Quote from: Murder_me_Rachel on June 22, 2017, 09:59:25 AM
People have the mistaken impression that billionaire owners give half a shit about their host cities.  They don't.  They care about increasing their asset and that's it.  Make these people out to be saviors and you're going to get burned. Badly.

You're from Jax, right?  From strictly a local perspective, I'd argue that the Weavers gave about 10 shits for their home city.  It's too bad that they ran the team with the same feeling that they use when giving back to the city - probably more a testament to the type of people they were.

But I feel where you're coming from and aside from my example (and I'm sure there are a few more 'good' owners that we don't hear about), you're probably right.

The scoreboards and club renovations are 99% about the Jaguars and don't benefit Jax as a whole as much as some of us, myself included, would like to believe.  The amphitheater?  Totally a win for the city of Jax.  Khan being the impetus behind quite a few of the developments actually moving? Again, a win for the city.  So while I'm not up to the RG 'savior' view, I do think that much of what he is doing / proposing can be beneficial to the city as a whole.  Sure he's trying to make a profit, so would any private developer.  It's up to the mayor's office and city council to ensure that we don't get burned, and that's the only part that I'm skeptical of. 
A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
-Douglas Adams

RattlerGator

#32
June 23, 2017, 06:29:32 AM
As Tacachale might say, not this shit again!

Heaven forbid someone with skin in the game might want to make some damn . . . MONEY !!!

I mean, money *is* a relevant consideration in our discussions about the urban core. Dems dass got it? Newsflash, they matter.

Downtown Osprey

#33
April 09, 2018, 11:07:23 AM
Hearing the One Spark event this year was a complete disaster. From parking, prices for food and beverages and just overall execution. I did not attend but I'm seeing a lot of negative feedback on social media. Did anyone attend?

Bridges

#34
April 09, 2018, 02:09:45 PM
Quote from: Downtown Osprey on April 09, 2018, 11:07:23 AM
Hearing the One Spark event this year was a complete disaster. From parking, prices for food and beverages and just overall execution. I did not attend but I'm seeing a lot of negative feedback on social media. Did anyone attend?

Yes, had an awful time.  Actually wasn't even planning on going.  But needed something to do in the area.  This was on Saturday and I'm sure the weather didn't help, but it was very sparse.  Sad really.  Ended up getting trapped their because they had a no umbrella policy, and due to the pouring down rain we couldn't leave for our car.  Security was extremely strict about bringing in an umbrella to just walk someone out of the event.  There was no where to sit down that wasn't exposed to the rain.

Oh yeah, one of the "creators" was an umbrella business so they sold umbrellas. 
So I said to him: Arthur, Artie come on, why does the salesman have to die? Change the title; The life of a salesman. That's what people want to see.

CityLife

#36
April 09, 2018, 02:48:02 PM
Think it is finally time to stick the fork in One Spark. It's a shame that all the money that was sunk into it was not used to create something sustainable. All that money could have created an amazing incubator or been used to partner with UNF, UF, or FSU on an innovation/entrepreneurship hub.

Palm Beach Tech is an interesting case study. It's part co-work space, part tech association/hub. They've only been around three years with nowhere near One Spark level of funding, but they are playing the long game and building up the local ecosystem.

https://palmbeachtech.org/

I'm sure there are countless other examples statewide and regionally.

Kerry

#37
April 09, 2018, 05:42:18 PM
Honestly, did anyone think this was going to be a successful event?  $12.50 per person in a glorified parking lot far removed from anything else to do...it had disaster written all over it from the beginning.
Third Place

thelakelander

#38
April 09, 2018, 10:49:19 PM
"A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life." - Muhammad Ali

KenFSU

#39
April 09, 2018, 11:13:07 PM
It was doomed the second that they announced the venue. Take out the downtown street festival, and you're basically left with a glorified trade show with paid admission. I get it, cutbacks had to be made, and I think all parties involved did the absolute best they could given the available resources, but One Spark 2018 is a great case study demonstrating that, for all intents and purposes, the sports complex might as well be the Southside when it comes to synergy with the CBD. Walking around downtown on Thursday and Friday, you wouldn't have even known that One Spark was taking place.

Props to all involved for working so hard to continue the tradition, but if it does come back, it needs to be held in downtown proper.

Kerry

#40
April 10, 2018, 03:17:52 PM
You nailed on the disconnect between the sports district and the rest of downtown.  They simply built all that stuff to far away from everything.
Third Place

remc86007

#41
April 10, 2018, 03:58:28 PM
I went Saturday. There was so little promotion, I'm not sure why they expected 30k people to show up. More people were at the Arena for the gun show and Met Park for the Soul Circus than at One Spark. I live in Springfield and work downtown. If I had not seen an article about it online, I don't think I would have known it was happening...and that's crazy to think about. The Jacksonville Lantern Parade that was postponed had significantly more advertising. I still don't understand how the original model could not have been made to be successful? Just sell more beer and take a bigger cut...that's a proven model isn't it?

As for the event itself: It was nice having the "creators" clustered together. Everything else about it was worse than prior years. The venue was terrible; there was no connection to anything else in the city. I think the whole concept has been distorted to the point that it serves no one. There were 10-15 "creators" I thought were genuinely interesting to see. Many of the other "creators" seemed to be vendors. If you are going to curate, you have to have enough quality participants to make a quality show of it. That isn't happening, and I think only maybe 10 cities in the US have enough local entrepreneurship to create a whole show based on quality ideas, and Jax isn't one of them. Even if it were, I'm not sure why anyone would want to pay to see other people's ideas. That's why I think the original uncurated model worked the best. There was so much more to look at that way and even if some of the "creators" weren't doing something novel, they at least provided something more to see. Sure, it was just a glorified street festival, but it was a very large, very fun street festival that probably had economic impacts on Jacksonville far beyond what could be quantified on the days of the event. The 2013-2015 One Sparks gave a sense of momentum to Jacksonville as a whole that was sorely needed at the time and could be useful again in the future.
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