Return on Intention: The New Standard for Site Selection

What’s Changing the Site Selection Equation

Experience Is Rewriting the Checklist

Five years have dramatically changed what planners expect from a destination.

Natural light, outdoor access, wellness, comfortable seating, and spaces that encourage conversation are moving higher on the priority list. Corporate groups are also looking for team-building and give-back opportunities that give gatherings a larger purpose.

Patti sees those requests firsthand: “We get a lot of requests for natural light, indoor, outdoor space.”

The emphasis has moved beyond traditional meeting amenities.

“It’s not so much the pads of paper and the pens and the candies,” she says.

Instead, planners are thinking about the emotional architecture of an event: Where will people connect? Can they recharge between sessions? Does the environment reinforce the purpose of bringing everyone together?

Janice believes venues that understand that distinction have an advantage. “When they make people feel welcomed and make people feel like they belong, that is the recipe that will win the business.”

A floor plan can tell you whether everyone fits. It can’t tell you whether they’ll feel like they belong.

Start With Intention, Not Amenities

Return on investment isn’t disappearing. Events are significant investments, and organizations need results.

But ROI doesn’t tell the whole story.

Janice’s idea of return on intention starts with asking why people are gathering in the first place.

“When we think intentionally, and we want to do something, we want to promote something, or we want to market something, or we want to sell something, it’s with intention.”

If the goal is collaboration, does the venue encourage people to interact? If the objective is employee renewal, does the schedule—and the property—give attendees room to breathe? If building culture is the priority, are planners creating opportunities for genuine connection outside the formal agenda?

Those questions also change how suppliers work together.

Janice advocates bringing hotels, AV providers, décor teams, and other partners into the conversation earlier rather than having each operate in isolation.

“Everybody can benefit by being at the table together so that we all understand each other and what the focus really is.”

That’s return on intention in practice: every decision pointing toward the same purpose.

Use High Tech Without Losing the Human Touch

Technology is making site selection and hospitality faster.

AI can help process information and reduce repetitive work. Virtual and 3D tours allow planners to explore properties when an in-person site visit isn’t practical. Digital registration and check-in can remove frustrating lines and paperwork.

But Janice cautions against confusing efficiency with hospitality. Recalling an automated hotel check-in, she says: “I wasn’t talking to somebody. It was now done on a platform.”

Her verdict was simple: “I didn’t really love it.”

Patti sees the opportunity in striking a balance: using technology to streamline the experience while keeping people available for moments when human interaction matters.

Janice even suggests a new way to think about hospitality staff:

“Maybe hotel management needs to be hotel navigators.”

As routine transactions become automated, people can spend more time welcoming, guiding, and solving problems.

Let technology handle the transaction. Let people handle the moment.

Win the Business by Listening First

Price matters. Airlift matters. Amenities matter.

But Janice starts with something else. “I believe in relationships. I always have.” Those relationships are built by listening, not simply responding to an RFP. “I think one of the biggest problems in our industry is that people don’t listen.”

Listening reveals the priorities hiding between the lines. A group may need thoughtful dietary accommodations. Accessibility may shape the entire attendee journey. Sustainability commitments may influence purchasing decisions. Informal spaces may be essential because relationship-building is the real objective of the meeting.

Janice is particularly direct about accessibility: “I don’t think that accessibility has been taken seriously enough.”

That means thinking beyond minimum requirements and looking at the complete experience, from entrances and guest rooms to transportation, stages, seating, signage, and digital information.

The winning destination isn’t necessarily the one promising everything. It’s the one that understands what matters to the group and consistently delivers it.

Make Service Recovery Part of the Experience

Even a spectacular property can lose its shine when service falls short.

Things go wrong. Rooms aren’t always ready. Instructions get crossed. Staffing changes. Events have too many moving pieces to expect perfection every time.

What matters is what happens next.

Janice recalls asking dissatisfied clients one straightforward question: “What would make you happy?”

Patti looks at the same issue from the service side: “If I don’t know, I can’t fix it.”

Both perspectives point to a skill technology can’t easily replace: listening to someone, acknowledging the problem and responding with empathy and judgment.

That also puts pressure on the industry to prepare its next generation of professionals.

Janice believes experienced hospitality leaders need to share more of what they’ve learned. “The elders within every operation…need to spend a little more time with the younger generation.”

Processes can be taught. Judgment takes practice.

That philosophy is central to Janice’s work with Event Minds Matter, which focuses on psychological safety, emotional intelligence and human sustainability within the events industry.

“Having the trust, the safety, and the human sustainability is what is going to help sustain this industry in the long run.”

The connection to site selection is stronger than it might first appear. Employees who feel supported and prepared are better positioned to support guests. The employee experience eventually becomes the attendee experience.

Choose the Site That Understands the ‘Why’

The future of site selection won’t hinge on one amenity or technology.

AI will become more capable. Virtual site visits will improve. Wellness, accessibility, and sustainability will continue influencing decisions. Attendee expectations will keep evolving.

But the competitive advantage may be surprisingly simple: listen better.

Understand why people are gathering. Select spaces that reinforce that purpose. Bring partners together early. Use technology where it removes friction without removing hospitality. And build teams capable of responding when the perfectly planned event inevitably becomes imperfect.

The best site isn’t simply the one that can accommodate the event.

It’s the one that understands what the event is trying to accomplish.

Site selection will always involve numbers. But its future may depend just as much on things that don’t fit neatly inside a spreadsheet: trust, belonging, comfort, connection, and care.

That’s the shift from return on investment to return on intention.

This version is considerably leaner while keeping the core arc and the strongest Janice/Patti exchanges intact.

Put Intention at the Top of Your Site-Selection List

Before you send the next RFP or schedule another site visit, start with one question: What do we want people to experience here?

Then look for a destination and partners who can help make that intention a reality. Ask how the space supports connection. Pay attention to accessibility, wellness, and sustainability. Find out how technology improves the guest experience without replacing hospitality. And notice who is truly listening—not just selling.

The right site should do more than accommodate your event. It should help accomplish its purpose.

Ready to rethink how you choose where to meet? Start with intention, build around people, and let the right destination rise to the top. Contact us here.