In the latest edition of In The Spotlight, we catch up with Sascha Michel, CEO and Co-founder of Canvas Events, to explore how the company is using technology, data and AI to make venue finding faster, simpler and more transparent.
Sascha shares the story behind Canvas Events, what makes its approach different from traditional venue-finding services, and why Manchester was the natural next step for the business as it looks to grow its presence in the city's thriving events scene.
Could you introduce Canvas Events and explain what the platform offers?
Canvas Events is an expert venue-finding platform based in London, serving London and Manchester. We're curated rather than exhaustive, and we focus mainly on corporate clients (around 70% of our business) looking for venues for conferences, meetings, corporate parties, launches and awards dinners. Our platform lets clients source, compare and instant message venues in one place, backed by accurate response times, response rates and up-to-date pricing. We also run a concierge service for more niche briefs and to consolidate multiple quotes, plus AI-assisted search that can reach venues beyond our own listed platform.
What inspired the idea for Canvas Events, and how did the company first get started?
We started in 2013, incubated by our sister company The Location Collective, the UK's largest film location agency. There was clear demand from PR companies, production companies and event organisers for interesting industrial spaces, so we built a separate platform to serve that segment. We also spotted a wider opportunity: disrupting the agency-led model with a subscription-based, direct contact-to-venue approach. Removing the middleman empowered clients rather than adding obstacles.
What problem in the venue finding and events industry did you set out to solve?
We wanted to disrupt the traditional agency model, where agents often had limited venue knowledge and slowed things down compared to speaking directly with a venue manager. Canvas is a marketplace that speeds up filtering and searching through direct contact, and because we track everything on the backend, we unlock unique spaces you'd never find through a more traditional search.
How has Canvas Events evolved since it was founded?
We're bootstrapped and have taken no outside investment, so our growth has been incremental. We started with venues paying a subscription, and that pricing model has evolved as we've delivered more value, funding our own development along the way. More recently we've built our concierge service, adding a human element because personal touch, relationships and patience matter when clients are managing sizable budgets and important events. AI has also supercharged how fast we can ship new features, and we've launched a reward scheme.
Who are your typical customers, and what kinds of events do you help them organise?
Our typical customer is a corporate client, often an EA, PA or office manager, or someone more senior, booking anything from meetings and day conferences to corporate parties, summer and Christmas parties, awards ceremonies and brand activations. We also have members of the public using us for engagement parties, weddings and birthdays.
What makes the Canvas Events approach different from traditional venue finding services?
We're technology-first. Most of our resources go into building a platform that's easy, agile and intuitive, with AI-assisted search built in. We're focused on making communication and tracking simple, and on using data, things like response times and response rates, to help clients know what level of service to expect from a venue before they commit.
How does your venue concierge service support customers planning larger events?
Larger events often come with specific needs, balancing location against scale, plus technical requirements. Some clients need multi-month hires, which means exploring avenues beyond traditional venue-finding sites, including relationships with property developers for assets you won't find elsewhere. Our concierge service streamlines the whole process: arranging site visits and compiling quotes in one place so it's easy to hand over to senior management for sign-off.
Why was Manchester a natural market for Canvas Events to expand into?
When we looked at scaling beyond London, Manchester had the density and variety of venues that suit a typical Canvas client, from high-end five-star hotels to industrial warehouses and coworking spaces, alongside major regeneration and commercial development. It felt like the natural next city, and it also meant we could serve our existing London-based clients when they need venues in Manchester.
What excites you most about Manchester's venues and wider events scene?
The history and the regeneration. So many sites have been brought back to life, and we love the idea of breathing new life into a space, turning an industrial site into somewhere brilliant for conferencing, for example. Manchester has seen huge growth over the last five to ten years, and we want to be part of that story.
Are there any emerging event trends or changes in customer expectations that you are particularly interested in?
AI is having an impact across many industries, and we're focused on how it can cut out the time-wasting in venue finding. It also lets us pull together data points from multiple channels on the fly, so clients can make more informed decisions faster.
What are your ambitions for Canvas Events in Manchester over the next year?
We're a curated platform, so the goal was never to list every venue in Manchester. We're selective about the type of venue that suits our clients. We're aiming for 100 to 150 venues in the city and we're already about halfway there, with more five-star hotels, medium to large-scale venues and coworking spaces to add.
Alongside that, we want to engage more corporate clients who are based in Manchester and book events there, and show them we can support their venue-finding needs beyond the city too. We're not limited to London and Manchester. We've secured venues for clients in New York and elsewhere in the country, and we can effectively access almost any venue, anywhere.
How can Manchester Digital members connect with Canvas Events or find out more?
Get in touch directly through our website, particularly via our concierge service. Just mention you're a Manchester Digital member and ask for Jacob, who heads up concierge. There's a concierge button on the site, so it's easy to reach us directly.
Thanks Sascha!
To find out more about Canvas, click here.
