Last year, One Spark was one of the most exciting events that we were able to attend. Not only is the concept behind One Spark completely novel, but they also throw one hell of a party, complete with fire twirlers (right). This year, it looks to be bigger, and better than last years inaugural event.

One Spark is ‘The Worlds First Crowdfunding Festival.’ What exactly does that mean? Well, here is how the One Spark team describes the event:

One Spark is a five-day event for Creators. From April 9 – 13, 2014, artists, entrepreneurs and innovators will display Projects in a 20-square-block, multi-Venue gallery in downtown Jacksonville, Florida.¹

There is a $200,000 crowdfund pool up for grabs. All One Spark attendees will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite projects; each vote received, “translate[s] into a percentage of the $200,000 crowdfund distributed solely by popular vote.”² Further, all of these projects fall into one of five categories: Art, Innovation, Music, Science, or Technology. The top vote receiver in each of the five categories will be awarded a $10,000 prize on top of their crowdfund share.

At last year’s One Spark, Shad Khan – The owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the head of the STACHE Investments Corp (left) – “pledged up to $1 million during the inaugural One Spark 2013 event and converted his pledge into over $1 million of actual investment in six qualified One Spark 2013 creator projects.”³ This year, Khan’s STACHE Corp has partnered with six more investment firms – Arsenal Venture Partners, Florida Blue, Healthbox, PS27 Ventures and UE Investors – to up the total private investment opportunity to $3.35 million.⁴ In a statement, Khan noted:

One Spark has my support again this year because it showcases Jacksonville, particularly downtown, and everything we have here to offer an entrepreneur…We will definitely show a preference to qualified creators who have a quality idea that perhaps needs financial support to become reality, and then would be willing to do business here in Jax. I wish the participants good luck.⁵

One Spark is one of the most exciting tech (or semi-tech) events of the year. Here is some of what we saw last year. Hopefully, we will see you there this year.