This past weekend, the One Spark festival had about 300,000 attendees, who cast 117,000 votes for many of the 537 creators who took part in the weeklong event. The competition for most money raised had many of the competitors getting excited – especially those who were selected to compete to show off their propositions for new projects to raise money for the charities they were representing – although only six out of 24 competitors could win.

While some found being selected to participate in the competition to be stressful, others had been preparing for quite some time for the event – at least that was the case for Patrick Breslen, owner of Optimal Bagging, an invention that allows “the fastest way to change the trash. Guaranteed.” The Jacksonville native had been working on his invention for the past five years, with some of his other friends.

While he definitely does not deny that winning the extra prize money would be beneficial, the overall exposure and feedback he received from festival attendees as well as connections made, were worth well more than the money.

According to Breslen, “to know that people like the product, that’s what we are here for. Not to win the money.”

Although, winning must have felt awfully nice, seeing as how his invention ended up winning.

While one winner said she plans to distribute her product to all the counties in Northeast Florida, Brelsen states that the winning money will be used to make moves to file patents and fly to see distributers.