Yes, as expansive and aggressive as the Chicago start-up scene is, it seems that next week’s “One Spark” event - “The World’s Crowdfunding Festival” - managed to sneak under the radar of all but ONE of Chicago’s start-ups. This might, of course, be due to the fact that the festival is being held in Jacksonville, FL and not in the Midwest, but one would think that the $200,000.00+ that’s one the table (along with exposure to a lot of angel and VC investors) would have enticed more to show up.
The One Spark concept is sort of a mash-up of Kickstarter and SXSW … it’s a five-day festival in downtown Jacksonville, where over 600 “Creators” are featured at 77 venues. There is one main pool of funds, and visitors are encouraged to vote (via a smart phone app, and at booths) for the projects they like. The more votes you get, the bigger piece of the funding pie you receive … plus there are $10,000.00 prizes for being the biggest vote getter in your category, and a system where attendees can chip in directly:
Since One Spark is free to attend, we ask that instead of paying an admission fee, you put that money toward helping the Creators. A contribution of $5 or $10 may not seem significant, but when hundreds or even thousands of people believe in an idea and support it, the power of crowdfunding can be the difference between a good idea sitting on a shelf or becoming the next big thing.
The One Spark festival is not just for start-ups, but there are categories for Music and Art (providing a lot of the “street appeal” for the festival), along with Science, Technology, and a somewhat catch-all “Innovation”, which includes projects from historic preservation, to schools looking for particular equipment, to other festivals and events, all the way up to a local TEDx.
Chicago start-up Nature’s Little Recyclers is in the “science/agriculture” category, with a program for Building an Earthworm Factory (see: http://BeOurSpark.com). Nature’s Little Recyclers calls itself an “Urban Vermiculture Green Tech Venture”, and has been raising earthworms, recycling coffee grounds, paper, & various other consumer waste, and producing high-quality vermicast for the compost needs of the City’s burgeoning Urban Farm movement for the past year and a half. Previously located in Chicago’s green tech incubator, The Plant, they’ve just moved out to their own location, and are looking for funds to drive their expansion.
Another interesting feature of the One Spark model is that “Creators” have to be picked by the “Venues” through what they refer to as a “matchmaking” process, and, because Nature’s Little Recyclers feeds so many coffee-related things to the worms (grounds, “chaff” from processing, even the burlap bags the coffee ships in), it was only natural that they ended up getting taken in by a coffee shop, Urban Grind, which is the host establishment for the lobby space in the Bank of America tower in the middle of the One Spark zone in downtown Jacksonville.
Running from Wednesday, April 9th through Sunday, April 13th 2014, the One Spark programming kicks off at 11am and runs through midnight (with performance stages), there are speakers (such as Unmarketing’s Scott Stratten), presentation stages (each Creator gets to do a pitch), a “food village”, a “beer village”, and all-day activities by the hundreds of Creators.
So, wish Nature’s Little Recyclers luck (or maybe throw a few bucks at their current IndieGoGo campaign – http://wormvan.com), as they head off to “represent” for Chicago at One Spark. Of course, if you just happen to be in the north-eastern part of Florida next week, swing by their booth to say “Hi” and vote for #20760!
