Mayor Curry and One Spark organizers have a 10:00 AM press conference scheduled on Monday at Everbank Field to announce details.
Full story:
http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2017/06/15/one-spark-2017-will-happen-details-to-be-released.html
Interesting...
Hmmmmm. Sounds like Daily's Place and the Flex Field might have a big role.
Good idea in a vacuum - it condenses the event so that more people are around more vendors in a compact area. But I don't see how it benefits the city as a whole. Sorry, but if they're going to host the event at Everbank, then they might as well host it at SJTC - similar impact for the businesses downtown.
Anyone remember Jazzfest at the Shipyards? Well, this is further out than that.
And I guess I only feel this way because Curry is getting behind a podium. If this is the only event they're announcing (i.e. the overpass coming down doesn't have a timeline yet), then he's just shilling for an event that doesn't benefit the majority of his downtown businesses.
^Agree in theory. Hosting the event at Everbank/Flex Field/Daily's Place, if that's the announcement, completely isolates the event from the downtown core and the businesses therein. That said, if the two choices are 1) hold One Spark 2017 at Everbank with what I presume to be a significant sponsorship from the Jaguars, or 2) Hold no One Spark in 2017 at all, I guess it's a net win. Don't love it, but I'd take it over nothing.
Quote from: KenFSU on June 18, 2017, 10:27:15 AM
Don't love it, but I'd take it over nothing.
Sorry, bud, but we're gonna have to agree to disagree on this one.
Like I said, it's essentially no different IMO to holding it at the Morocco Shriners, SJTC, Regency Mall or any other open area outside of the core.
Because they're going to sell this as a downtown event, but it's going to do absolutely nothing for downtown proper. In all honesty, it would probably be better received at some of the other places mentioned, but then they wouldn't be able to claim to be anything other than what they are - a convention of idea-makers. The 'festival' aspect was gone after the 2nd one.
^Fair enough. And I do agree, it would be as much of a "downtown event" as a Welcome to Rockville, or the Jacksonville Fair.
Pure speculation, but with Bold Events wanting to enter the event and convention space, I wonder if they would sponsor this and hold it at the sports complex as a proof of concept type of deal.
What if they held the main event at the stadium district and then offered free trolley rides into the core for the "after party?" Then people have plenty of easy parking at the stadium and a quick convenient way to get in and out of downtown if they want to see some local artists, bands, food, drinks, etc?
Quote from: Non-RedNeck Westsider on June 18, 2017, 11:56:25 AM
The 'festival' aspect was gone after the 2nd one.
Not to nitpick, but ok that's exactly what I'm doing, I think you meant after the
3rd one. The 3rd one was the biggest festival of all with record attendance.
Anyway, I do think it's important to note that they pulled off three years of major activation in the core...before collapsing on itself.
Quote from: KenFSU on June 18, 2017, 01:11:46 PM
^Fair enough. And I do agree, it would be as much of a "downtown event" as a Welcome to Rockville, or the Jacksonville Fair.
Pure speculation, but with Bold Events wanting to enter the event and convention space, I wonder if they would sponsor this and hold it at the sports complex as a proof of concept type of deal.
Possibly. Like I said, in a vacuum it's a pretty solid deal. They'll have the ability to host what has been an outdoor event 'outdoors' with the convenience of a roof. They'll have a centralized stage for the musical acts to perform. Plenty of expansion into the parking lots. And plenty of available parking nearby.
As many have said on various threads before, I agree that the flex field is not a good substitute for your typical convention, but it's a great place to hold this event and those like it.
And yeah, Max, my bad. Thanks.
Why are we assuming that the festival will take place at the stadium, etc? Is it because the announcement is happening there? Or is it something else? I didn't see anything in that story stating where the festival was being held.
Quote from: Adam White on June 18, 2017, 03:36:15 PM
Why are we assuming that the festival will take place at the stadium, etc? Is it because the announcement is happening there? Or is it something else? I didn't see anything in that story stating where the festival was being held.
Quote from: Non-RedNeck Westsider on June 18, 2017, 03:54:51 PM
Quote from: Adam White on June 18, 2017, 03:36:15 PM
Why are we assuming that the festival will take place at the stadium, etc? Is it because the announcement is happening there? Or is it something else? I didn't see anything in that story stating where the festival was being held.
Quote from: Adam White on June 18, 2017, 04:09:35 PM
Quote from: Non-RedNeck Westsider on June 18, 2017, 03:54:51 PM
Quote from: Adam White on June 18, 2017, 03:36:15 PM
Why are we assuming that the festival will take place at the stadium, etc? Is it because the announcement is happening there? Or is it something else? I didn't see anything in that story stating where the festival was being held.
Lol. I. Can't. ;)
*you still missed a _
Quote from: Non-RedNeck Westsider on June 18, 2017, 04:25:39 PM
Quote from: Adam White on June 18, 2017, 04:09:35 PM
Quote from: Non-RedNeck Westsider on June 18, 2017, 03:54:51 PM
Quote from: Adam White on June 18, 2017, 03:36:15 PM
Why are we assuming that the festival will take place at the stadium, etc? Is it because the announcement is happening there? Or is it something else? I didn't see anything in that story stating where the festival was being held.
Lol. I. Can't. ;)
*you still missed a _
Fixed!
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.
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...
Quote from: Murder_me_Rachel on June 19, 2017, 10:45:59 AM
Quote from: KenFSU on June 19, 2017, 10:12:30 AM
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.
Quote from: Tacachale on June 19, 2017, 11:07:27 AM
Quote from: Murder_me_Rachel on June 19, 2017, 10:45:59 AM
Quote from: KenFSU on June 19, 2017, 10:12:30 AM
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.
Quote from: Murder_me_Rachel on June 19, 2017, 11:40:12 AM
Quote from: Tacachale on June 19, 2017, 11:07:27 AM
Quote from: Murder_me_Rachel on June 19, 2017, 10:45:59 AM
Quote from: KenFSU on June 19, 2017, 10:12:30 AM
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.
Quote from: Adam White on June 19, 2017, 11:44:40 AM
Quote from: Murder_me_Rachel on June 19, 2017, 11:40:12 AM
Quote from: Tacachale on June 19, 2017, 11:07:27 AM
Quote from: Murder_me_Rachel on June 19, 2017, 10:45:59 AM
Quote from: KenFSU on June 19, 2017, 10:12:30 AM
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.
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...
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.
Quote from: Non-RedNeck Westsider on June 19, 2017, 12:08:25 PM
Quote from: Adam White on June 19, 2017, 11:44:40 AM
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).
Quote from: Adam White on June 19, 2017, 04:27:22 PM
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.
Quote from: Murder_me_Rachel on June 19, 2017, 01:26:43 PM
Quote from: remc86007 on June 19, 2017, 12:44:00 PM
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!
Quote from: Non-RedNeck Westsider on June 19, 2017, 12:08:25 PM
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.
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.
Quote from: Keith-N-Jax on June 20, 2017, 09:11:11 AM
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
LOL
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.
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.
Hmm sounds bad...
http://www.jacksonville.com/news/20180409/one-spark-attendance-smolders
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.
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.
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.