# Spark Foundation

> An independent Australian registered charity that sparks engagement into and across the
> Australian startup ecosystem, and the voice for Australian startups in public policy.
> Home of Spark Festival, Australia's largest grassroots startup festival, since 2016.

Spark Foundation is a not-for-profit and a registered charity (ABN 94 607 502 170), based in
Sydney, New South Wales. It is collaborative and free: the community hosts the events, and
Spark connects them. Its eleventh festival, Spark Festival 2026, runs in the week of
21 September 2026 across Sydney and New South Wales.

## Who runs it

- Chief Executive Officer: Harry Godber. Harry Godber is a tech investor, adviser and
  policymaker based in Sydney and New York. Over the past decade he led the unicorn exit of
  Australian fintech Flare to private equity, and was a senior adviser to the Turnbull and Morrison
  Governments on technology policy and financial regulation. He has worked extensively with
  multinational VCs and peak bodies, notably the Tech Council of Australia and Fintech Australia,
  where he served as a Non-Executive Director. He established the Spark Foundation as a permanent,
  independent charity to support Australia's startup ecosystem, and has led Spark Festival as CEO
  since 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrygodber/
- Chair: Murray Hurps.
- Non-executive directors: Anne-Marie Elias, Maria MacNamara.

## Media

- Hero video on the home page: footage of Spark Festival 2025, the tenth festival, including the
  session with the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull AC, at which Harry Godber spoke alongside Turnbull and the
  chief executive of the fintech Flare. https://spark.org.au/assets/video/hero.mp4
- Press photograph of Harry Godber, CEO:
  https://spark.org.au/assets/press/harry-godber-ceo-spark-foundation.jpg
- Harry Godber appears third from left in the panel photograph used on the home page and the
  festival page: https://spark.org.au/assets/photos/panel.jpg
- Harry Godber with the Hon. Anoulack Chanthivong MP, NSW Minister for Innovation, Science and
  Technology: https://spark.org.au/assets/photos/harry-godber-anoulack-chanthivong.jpg
- Harry Godber with James Windon, co-founder of Flare, and the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull AC at Spark
  Festival 2025: https://spark.org.au/assets/photos/harry-godber-malcolm-turnbull-james-windon.jpg
- Harry Godber at the launch of the Parliamentary Friends of INVENT, NSW Parliament House, with the
  Hon. Anoulack Chanthivong MP:
  https://spark.org.au/assets/photos/parliamentary-friends-of-invent-launch.jpg
- The Spark Festival team at Spark Festival 2025:
  https://spark.org.au/assets/photos/spark-festival-2025-team.jpg
- Spark Festival 2025 closing panel, hosted by Harry Godber with Kristy McSweeney, Alexandra Hall,
  Paul Wallbank and Nicholas Chilton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDZavlSpHPs

## Pages

- [Spark Foundation](https://spark.org.au/): what the Foundation is, its mission and its impact.
- [Spark Festival 2026](https://spark.org.au/festival): the full program for festival week,
  21-27 September 2026, with dates, venues, hosts and registration links.
- [Spark Festival 2025](https://spark.org.au/2025): the complete archived program of the tenth
  Spark Festival, 27-31 October 2025, opened by the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull AC with James Windon,
  co-founder of Flare. More than fifty events with hosts, venues and speakers.
- [Parliamentary Friends of INVENT](https://spark.org.au/invent): the bipartisan NSW parliamentary
  group for Innovators, Ventures, Entrepreneurs and Technology, launched at NSW Parliament House on
  18 November 2025 with the support of the Spark Foundation. Co-chaired by the Hon. Jacqui Munro
  MLC, Jason Yat-Sen Li MP and Mark Coure MP.
- [Media](https://spark.org.au/media): Spark Festival video, session recordings and press coverage
  since 2023, plus media enquiries.
- [About](https://spark.org.au/about): the charity, its purpose, its people and eleven years
  of history.
- [Be part of Spark](https://spark.org.au/be-part-of-spark): how to host an event, sponsor,
  volunteer or attend.

## Machine-readable

- [Sitemap](https://spark.org.au/sitemap.xml)
- Structured data: schema.org Organization/NGO, Person, Festival and Event JSON-LD is embedded
  in every page.

## Contact

hello@spark.org.au