Bachata Connect
Building an international community platform through behavioural and experience design
Company
Own company
Language
English, Spanish, Italian
Date
2014 - Present
Project Overview
Product & Experience Platform
I run one of Europe’s leading curated bachata experiences.
What started in 2014 as a trip to Cádiz with friends evolved into an international learning and community platform attracting 400 participants from 56 countries every year.
More than 70% of participants teach bachata in their local communities, making the experience highly influential within the wider dance ecosystem.
The platform combines live experiences, behavioural design, community systems, and digital touchpoints to create a more intentional learning and social experience.
Problem & Motivation
Most dance festivals are designed around scale: more workshops, more artists, more parties, more tickets.
But from the participant's perspective, the experience often feels fragmented and overwhelming. People struggle with inconsistent levels, overcrowded classes, social anxiety, lack of progression, and very little connection once the event ends.
I saw an opportunity to redesign the experience around outcomes rather than volume.
In 2025, the business faced its biggest challenge after the dissolution of the original partnership behind the event. At the same time, the bachata market itself was evolving beyond a single dominant style.
This required a full repositioning of the experience, artist strategy, and value proposition.
Goal
Design a product and community experience that:
supports intentional progression
creates stronger participant connection
reduces friction and overwhelm
increases retention and repeat participation
combines physical and digital touchpoints into one connected journey
Approach
As founder and director, I led the repositioning of the business during one of its most challenging moments in 2025 following the dissolution of the original partnership behind the event.
This required rebuilding the experience, redefining the strategy, renegotiating artist partnerships, redesigning the value proposition, and repositioning the brand in a rapidly evolving market.
I expanded the experience beyond Bachata Sensual by partnering with leading artists across multiple bachata styles, creating a broader and more differentiated offering.
At the same time, I redesigned the participant experience around:
structured learning tracks
curated participant selection
clearer progression systems
stronger community dynamics
more intentional social experiences
digital engagement beyond the physical event
More recently, I started building Bachata Connect, a companion platform designed to support personalised schedules, reflection, participant coordination, and year-round community engagement.
Design
A large part of the design work focused on emotional experience, not just logistics.
The experience was built around four principles which continuosly shape both the product and the operational decisions behind the event.
be humble rather than arrogant
never stop learning
focus on connection, both on and off the dance floor
choose quality over quantity
To support this:
participants submit application videos and are carefully curated into groups
learning tracks are designed around progression rather than random workshops
schedules balance intensity, rest, and social interaction throughout the week
reflection and journaling reinforce learning and personal growth
digital and in-person touchpoints work together to extend engagement before, during, and after the event
The design process combines behavioural psychology, service design, community dynamics, and operational thinking rather than focusing only on interfaces.
Impact
Scaled to 400+ participants annually
Participants from 40+ countries
1,000+ applications within the first week for 400 places
Highly curated selection process
Strong repeat participation year after year
~95% participant satisfaction/NPS
80% sold out four months before the 2026 event
Increased expected profitability following the 2025 repositioning
Why this matters
Bachata Connect became the place where I applied my MBA learning in real time across strategy, negotiation, service design, marketing, operations, pricing, and financial decision-making.
The project taught me how to redesign a complex service under pressure, reposition a brand during market change, and build a differentiated experience in a crowded industry.
More importantly, it reinforced my belief that strong products are not built around features or scale alone, but around progression, emotional experience, community dynamics, and long-term value creation.
