One Spark is absolutely blowing up. The Worlds First Crowdfunding Festival already announced that this years event will up the the total private investment opportunity from $1 million to $3.25 million. Then, last Thursday, March 20th, the inaugural One Spark Berlin was announced. The festival will, “expand into Berlin, Germany producing One Spark Berlin in mid-September 2014.”¹

One Spark noted in the announcement that, “numerous international markets have contacted festival organizers expressing interest in partnering with One Spark in order to host festivals in their cities.”² Further, according to a  Jacksonville Business Journal article, the announcement event also left the door open for other international events. According to the report, the slideshow used during the announcement “showed a timeline going forward from 2014 and the possible future locations where One Spark might plant its flag, including Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Sydney, Australia; and Johannesburg, South Africa.”³

But why Berlin of all places? Well, according to the same Business Journal article, Elton Rivas – the Co-Founder of One Spark – noted that there were an awful lot of similaraties between Jacksonville and Berlin:

Rivas said he and his team looked at the demographics of Berlin and found many similarities in the makeup of Berlin’s arts community and how “siloed” certain segments of that community are, especially in connecting creators with the resources they need to bring their projects to market.⁴

This is an exciting time for One Spark. In the second year of One Spark’s existence, the investment money has more than tripled, and the event is expanding to Berlin. That is growth right there. Perhaps the best way to close this article is with the last sentence on the One Spark Berlin Website:

One Spark is currently in conversations with cities worldwide to bring the movement to life on each continent within 5 years.