BSJ

Healthcare Rigor: Driving BSJ's Success

Founded in 2009, BSJ has established itself as a benchmark in organizing healthcare and scientific conferences, backed by a team of 19 people. Gonzalo Baró, CEO, reviews the milestones of this PCO, the regulatory challenges facing the MICE sector, and how they integrate artificial intelligence to automate operations without losing the human touch

BSJ was born in 2009, in the midst of an economic crisis. What were those early years like, and what pushed you to take the leap into entrepreneurship? I had just returned from living in London for a year, where I completed a master’s degree. I came back to Spain in the middle of an economic crisis, unable to find a role that matched what appealed to me. Faced with that difficulty, the opportunity arose to organize a small medical conference on my own, and right there I uncovered a passion for events that still drives me today.

BSJ has specialized in the healthcare and scientific sector almost since its inception. Why was that sector chosen? What makes organizing medical conferences different from other types of events? It all stems from a family connection: my father is an orthopedic surgeon, and that first conference belonged to an association he was part of. Medicine has surrounded me since I was a child, and it is a sector where I feel truly comfortable and integrated.

Healthcare conferences also carry very demanding requirements: strict regulatory compliance in relationships with the healthcare industry (hence our FENIN accreditation), continuing medical education credits, managing conflicts of interest with speakers and sponsors, and an ongoing relationship with scientific societies that goes far beyond a single event. It involves year-round technical secretariat work, not just a three-day conference.

The team has grown so much in the last decade that you are now capable of managing several events simultaneously. This is just one example of the company’s evolution, but what have been BSJ’s major milestones since its foundation? Our evolution has gone through slower phases as well as more fast-paced ones. The beginning was tough, as is typical, with slow but steady growth that allowed us to build a name and gain a foothold in the industry. Starting around 2018, putting the pandemic period aside, growth accelerated. It was—and continues to be—a great challenge to manage that growth, know which areas to boost, and strengthen our corporate identity while evolving commercially.

Major milestones:

• 2012: Transition from a general agency to a specialized healthcare PCO (Professional Conference Organizer).

• 2018: FENIN accreditation and the launch of our own IATA-accredited travel agency to manage logistics and educational grants.

• 2019: Creation of Empática Studio as a dedicated unit for design, audiovisual services, and communication.

• 2019: Consolidation of permanent technical secretariats for scientific societies across various fields.

• 2024: Institutional recognition: organizing the launch event for the Mental Health Strategy 2024–2030 of the Regional Government of Castile and León.

• Recent years: Internal digitalization incorporating AI into operations, and a transition toward a more efficient and structured model.

Today, our team has grown to 19 staff members, and we continue to expand.

How has the demand from scientific and medical societies toward PCOs like BSJ changed in recent years, both in event formats and expected outcomes? Societies are increasingly requesting hybrid formats or a structural digital component as the norm rather than the exception. They demand measurable results (attendance, engagement, return on investment for sponsors) where logistical management used to be enough, and they are far more demanding regarding transparency and compliance in their relationships with the industry. Demand has also grown for content that lives beyond the event itself—such as recordings, rebroadcasts, and social media coverage.

Technology, digitalization, and now artificial intelligence have hit the sector hard. How do you balance all of this without losing the human touch? At BSJ, we use AI more and more in our daily operations, but without relinquishing personal control by our team. We already have proprietary tools in production, such as an automatic flight voucher generator and an AI telephone customer service assistant—specifically designed to free up our team’s time for what cannot be automated: relationships with speakers, scientific societies, and sponsors. Technology does not replace the human touch in this business; it protects it by lifting the administrative burden that used to steal that time from us.

What are the main challenges facing a conference organization company in Spain today? Several come to mind, but I would highlight the growing complexity of public procurement, with increasingly technical tender specifications and tighter deadlines; the shortage of specialized profiles in scientific event management; margin pressure when competing against price-driven bids in tenders; and sustainability and compliance demands that were not even on the table a few years ago.

Looking ahead to the coming years, where do you see the MICE sector heading, and what role does BSJ want to play in that transformation? The sector is moving toward greater professionalization, with stronger, less handcrafted organizational structures, and toward integrated services provided by a single point of contact, contrasting with the traditional fragmented model. BSJ aims to serve as a benchmark in health and science, backed by proprietary technology and an increasingly specialized team. My challenge is no longer organizing the next conference: it is enabling BSJ to run ten at once without missing a beat.