One Spark team selects jurors for 2016 event

One Spark festival in downtown Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The One Spark team announced Wednesday that 18 individuals from across the country agreed to serve as jurors for the 2016 One Spark festival.

The group will hand select One Spark creators to participate in the festival, which has never been done before.

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The One Spark team said the jury selection process is designed to ensure the quality and likelihood of success for creator projects.

Jurors will evaluate all projects based on a compelling application, well-conceived goals, crowdfunding reward structure and probability of success at making progress toward or achieving crowdfunding goals.

This year, creators will be grouped by category in creator districts: Arts & Culture, Education, Health & Wellness, Sports & Lifestyle, Social Good, and Technology & Engineering.

The jury is also divided by category and will select up to 50 creators in each district.

"We are thrilled to have such an incredible and diverse roster of professionals compiling our first-ever Creator selection jury," said One Spark CEO Elton Rivas. "Each of these jurors have a vast wealth of knowledge in their respective fields that will not only ensure a high-quality Creator list, but also help those Creators refine their pitch and generate more crowdfunding support at the 2016 festival."

One Spark 2016 jurors by category:

Arts & Culture

  • Will Thomas - Owner of award-winning Atlanta-based production company Space Cherry Films
  • Dale Stoudt - Founder of food truck turned brick-and-mortar business Super Food and Brew, member of The Elbow, Downtown Jacksonville's Entertainment District committed to creating an authentic entertainment experience, and director of residential sales for Seaman Realty
  • Vince Cavin - Executive Director of Hemming Park
  • Ben Thompson - Curator of collections at Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville

Education

  • Korin Munsterman - Florida Coastal School of Law Associate Dean of Library, IT and Academic Technology Services and Assistant Professor or Law
  • Susan Mankowski - Early Childhood Specialist in the Youth Services Department of the Jacksonville Public Library

Health & Wellness

  • Jacqueline Rose - Lead Research and Development Engineer at medical device company Ciel Medical
  • Jim Stallings - Managing Partner of private investment firm PS27 Ventures and internationally recognized global business leader and speaker
  • Kenneth Jones - CEO of St. Joseph's Hospital in Ft. Wayne, Indiana

Sports & Lifestyle

  • Cari Sanchez-Potter - Owner of The Legend Series, a pop-up art and dining series showcasing the best of Northeast Florida's culinary, visual and performing arts in unusual locations
  • Zack Brown - successfully crowdfunded a potato salad on Kickstarter, raising $55,492, leading to the creation of a cookbook hitting store shelves this summer
  • Carlton Robinson - Senior Director for the entrepreneurial growth division of the JAX Chamber
  • Donovin Darius - former Jacksonville Jaguars safety and founder of the Donovin Darius Foundation and Donovin Darius Next Level Training & Performance

Social Good

  • Kristin Keen - Founder/President of Rethreaded, a social entrepreneurship that is breaking the cycle of the sex trade by offering viable and creative work to those affected, past One Spark creator
  • Anna-Mieke Anderson - Founder/CEO of MiaDonna & Company, an eco-friendly man-made diamond jewelry e-tailor

Technology & Engineering

  • Hampton Catlin - Co-founder and CEO of Wordset and Team Rarebit, inventor of the Sass and Haml markup languages, along with the mobile version of Wikipedia
  • Mark McCombs - Founder of Renaissance Jax, a non-profit establishing FIRST Robotics teams in Duval County schools, past One Spark creator
  • Mina Markham - Front-end developer at Hillary for America and founder of the Dallas chapter of Girl Develop It, a non-profit providing affordable web and software development programs for women

There are only three weeks remaining for creators to apply for One Spark 2016. The application period closes January 29.

One Spark 2016 runs from April 7-9 in downtown Jacksonville.