About 80 business leaders were invited Tuesday to hear about the future of the One Spark crowdfunding festival, scheduled to open its fourth edition Downtown April 7.
The luncheon in the Arena Club at Veterans Memorial Arena was partly a look back at what the event has brought to the city in its first three years and partly a hint at the future of the festival.
One Spark board chair Peter Rummell has contributed millions to the festival, covering its financial deficit and most of the prize money for the first three years.
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He said One Spark has given the local creative community more visibility.
Now, there is an opportunity to expand One Spark’s ability to connect entrepreneurs with critical funding to make projects successful.
“We have to be smart. We have to be aggressive. We have an opportunity to do something,” said Rummell.
He lauded the introduction of One Spark Ventures, a year-round venture capital program, as “an exciting next chapter” in Jacksonville history.
“Ten years from now, when someone writes the history of One Spark, January 2016 will be a turning point. You are lucky to be here,” he said to the attendees.
One Spark’s next chapter began shortly after One Spark 2015 concluded when the full-time staff was reduced from 11 people to four. Then Rummell announced he no longer will write checks to balance the festival’s books.
In the past week, festival co-founder Elton Rivas resigned as CEO and from the board of directors.
His action was followed by the resignation of board member Rena Coughlin.
The success to date of One Spark was presented in a video that depicted 700,000 people attending the festival over three years and several businesses being launched due to participating in the event.
After the video was shown, Rummell said success is defined as recognizing what has happened and then doing something about it.
“We learned an enormous amount in four years,” he said. “But that was yesterday. What we’re here to worry about is tomorrow.”
While not part of the program during lunch, Chris Carter, who will run One Spark Ventures, was introduced to reporters afterwards.
The Greenwich, Conn.-based financial consultant said the new company will help entrepreneurs secure funding for projects on a year-round basis. But it won’t replace the festival, which is designed for attendees to donate to projects that appeal to them.
“We’re not trying to snuff out the flame,” Carter said. “The intention is to light another candle and take it to the next level.”
Rummell agreed and said the plan is to “figure out how to take the good work we’ve done and build on it.”
He also said the 2016 festival can’t be like the 2014 and 2015 editions.
“We lost a lot of money. We can’t keep doing that,” said Rummell.
Asked if the date for One Spark 2016 might be changed from April 7-9 to later in the year, Rummell said there’s no plan to reschedule the festival.
However, “the date is fixed until it’s not,” he said.
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