Manta Media Capital invests in On Sale Group and backs the only expo built for the experience economy

The strategic investment takes On Sale Live: The Experience Economy Expo to the Business Design Centre on 11 and 12 May 2027. Manta partners including Doug Emslie and Toby Duckworth join founder Dawn Farrow on growth, vision and operations.

Manta Media Capital has made a strategic investment in On Sale Group.

Manta is an event accelerator and investment firm that backs event founders with capital and hands on operational involvement. Between them, its partners have launched more than 100 events across more than 26 countries in the last twenty years, with exits including the sale of 121 Group to Hyve Group and Tarsus Group to Informa plc.

The investment backs the experience economy and the only expo in the world built for it.

On Sale Group is built for the marketing, ticketing, sales and communications professionals of the experience economy. It runs a free community network for the sector, the GIEM Experience Marketing Masterclass, the only accredited qualification for marketers learning to build campaigns for live experiences, and On Sale Live: The Experience Economy Expo.

Manta partners including Doug Emslie and Toby Duckworth join founder Dawn Farrow on the growth of the business. They bring capital, operational support and the experience of launching and scaling event brands internationally.

The expo the sector has never had

On Sale Live has become On Sale Live: The Experience Economy Expo.

After two sold out years as a conference for the commercial teams behind live experiences, the event moves to the Business Design Centre in Islington on 11 and 12 May 2027, doubles in length and adds a full exhibition floor.

It is the only expo in the world built around the technology, advertising and services that sell tickets to experiences.

The conference programme stays as delegates know it. The Main Stage hosts the conversations that shape the commercial year ahead. The Expert Zone covers the detail, the practical sessions and the people with knowledge and technology worth learning from. Both stages are built for an audience that works across theatre and festivals, attractions and immersive, museums and exhibitions, comedy, competitive socialising and location based entertainment.

What is new is the floor. It brings together the advertising platforms, media owners, marketing and ticketing technology, data and insight businesses, creative agencies and service suppliers that sit behind every ticket sold, and puts them in one room with the people who hold the budgets. This audience does not exist as a defined, reachable group anywhere else, and no other exhibition floor has been built to serve it.

Also new for 2027 is a Demo Stage, joining the Main Stage and the Expert Zone, running timed slots on the best technology and expertise in the industry from one of the busiest parts of the room. A Meeting Matcher programme, exclusive to exhibitors, qualifies leads before the doors open.

The market

The UK experience economy is worth £134 billion in gross value added and is forecast to reach £146 billion by 2027 on Barclays and CEBR figures. It is one of the fastest growing parts of the economy, and the marketing, sales and ticketing teams responsible for selling every ticket in it have never had a room of their own.

Quotes

Dawn Farrow, founder of On Sale Group, said:

"I have spent twenty years inside campaigns where the ticket numbers were the only measure that mattered, and the people doing that work have never had a room of their own. Manta understand events as businesses and they have built and scaled them all over the world. Their investment means On Sale Group gets built at the pace the sector deserves."

Toby Duckworth, founder and managing partner at Manta Media Capital, said:

"We back founders who own an audience and know what to do with it. On Sale Group has a community, a training business and an event that has sold out twice. We are here to add the launch and international scaling experience that turns a London fixture into a category brand."

Doug Emslie, partner at Manta Media Capital, said:

“I have spent thirty-three years in the events industry and the experience economy is one of the few genuinely underserved markets left. It has a defined commercial audience, real budgets and no dedicated exhibition floor anywhere in the world. Dawn built the audience first, which is the hard part and the right order to do it in."

Track record

On Sale Live has sold out in both of its previous years. Audience numbers grew 20 per cent year on year in 2026. Of the exhibitors at the last edition, 94 per cent confirmed they would return and 100 per cent rated the event well organised. Delegates have come from Live Nation, Ticketmaster, Merlin Entertainments, ATG Entertainment, Sonia Friedman Productions, TodayTix, Avalon, Media 10 and Virgin Experience Days. Sponsors have included Fever, Easol, Dewynters, Allied Global Marketing, Moonpig Buyagift, London & Partners, The Tourism Media Group, TodayTix, Line-Up, Made and TickX.

Exhibition space and sponsorship packages for 11 and 12 May 2027 are open now. Enquiries are handled directly via Sales Director Ruth Redding, ruth@onsalegroup.com.