Spark Festival is a festival that connects people, ideas, and resources across the entire innovation and startup ecosystem in Sydney. Spark festival includes startups, small businesses, government, corporates such as corporate leaders in Sydney’s digital marketing scene, universities, students, and investors who are invited to come together to celebrate Australian innovation.
Spark Festival Values and Objectives
Spark Festival is diverse and inclusive, and it holds events for people that are already working in the startup sector. It welcomes anybody who is curious to find what it is all about, and see where their skills might take them.
Spark Festival is a project of Spark Festival Limited – a not-for-profit organisation whose main objectives are to:
- Connect entrepreneurs, industry groups, government, and service providers that leads to the growth of vibrant startups communities in Australia.
- It provides opportunities for individuals of diverse background, age, and gender to pursue and succeed in their entrepreneurship career through events and other activities.
- It positions Australia as a startup country that is fostering, retaining, and attracting globally- recognised, talented individuals.
- It helps to provide training and awareness, and skills for individuals of all ages, primary and secondary children and workers from any industry to retain and transition to new industries.
- It supports industry development to help transition Australia’s industries towards a digital future.
The programming committee of the Spark Festival who are known as Spark Festival Track Leads usually meets throughout the year to oversee the development of the festival programme.
Spark Festival has just celebrated three years since its inception
The third Spark Festival concluded some few weeks ago. The Spark Festival was built in 2016 on the foundations set by Startup Week Sydney. The festival has seen tremendous growth since its inception with the number of attendees increasing every year.
In 2016, the number of attendees was 6,139 – in 2016, the number doubled to 13,081 in 2018. The number of sites visited during the festival was 14,400 and in 2018, the sites visited were 23,242. The numbers really speak for themselves. The festival’s ecosystem has:
- Hosted an additional 50% of events
- Extended the program from one week to ten days to two weeks
- Quadrupled the number of regional events
- Registered more than double the number of attendees.
A lot of work has also been done to make sure that the festival attracts more women. This year, the festival celebrated an increase in the number of female participation from 39% in 2016 to 49% in 2018. In this year’s festival, in addition to the events in Sydney CBD, the festival hosted events in Western Sydney, the Shire, and the North Shore all the way to Manly. Regional centers were also engaged with events hosted in Newcastle, Bega, Lismore, Byron Bay, Wollongong, Central Coast, Bathurst, and Orange.
The Spark Festival has once again put its best foot forward this year. It demonstrated the power of collaboration, opportunity, diversity, and diversity. The festival has ignited engagement in NSW, and it is planning to make things bigger and better come 2019.
