Hybrid working has not just changed where people work. It has fundamentally changed how relationships are formed, strengthened and ultimately converted into business.
I was reflecting on this recently and it took me back to the office tea point, or the corporate café, depending on how glamorous your setup was. There was always that moment. You would go to grab a coffee, fully intending to be there for 30 seconds, and twenty minutes later you were still there. You had bumped into someone from another team, or a client you had not planned to see, and somehow the conversation had moved from “how was your weekend?” to something genuinely useful. An important introduction to a new contact. A bit of insight. A problem mentioned in passing that you could help with. Nothing formal. Nothing forced. But those conversations had weight.
I think we underestimated just how much value was created in those in-between moments, because that is where trust was built. And very often, that is where opportunities started. You didn’t need to schedule it. You didn’t need an agenda. It just happened. Those moments still exist now, but far less often. And when they do happen, they feel different. More structured. More time-aware. Slightly more transactional.
It is a small shift on the surface, but it changes the quality of interaction quite significantly.
The Office No Longer Guarantees Connection
Many organisations have responded by bringing people back into the office, with a clear intent to rebuild collaboration and strengthen relationships.
The data supports that direction. Most businesses now expect employees in the office two to three days per week, with connection cited as a primary driver. But presence alone is not solving the problem. According to Microsoft, time in the office has become more scheduled and task-focused. You likely have also found this yourself, the more informal, unplanned moments where relationships once developed have not returned at the same rate.
Proximity, it turns out, is no longer enough.
And that creates a subtle but meaningful commercial gap.
The Commercial Impact of Weaker Connection
Relationships do not create value simply because people are nearby. They create value through depth of interaction. Through trust. Through shared experience. When those elements are reduced, the impact is felt commercially.
We see it in slower deal progression, in weaker stakeholder alignment, and in relationships that lack the resilience they once had. Hybrid working has not reduced the importance of relationships. It has increased the effort required to build them well. This is exactly why the environments that enable high-quality intentional interaction and energetic focus have become more valuable.
Hospitality Has Shifted From Perk to Strategy
I am a firm believer that hospitality is often undervalued because it is positioned incorrectly.
Too often, it is seen as discretionary. A reward. A nice-to-have. In reality, it is one of the few environments intentionally designed for connection.
And that matters because the evidence is consistent:
- Research from Freeman shows that 77% of executives have converted relationships into business following in-person events.
- The Event Marketing Institute reports that 84% of senior leaders consider in-person experiences critical to business success.
- Harvard Business Review has repeatedly highlighted that face-to-face interaction remains the most effective way to build trust, particularly in complex or high-value decisions
- Studies from McKinsey continue to show that trust is one of the biggest drivers of commercial performance, influencing everything from deal velocity to long-term client retention.
In-person interaction continues to outperform other channels when it comes to building trust and progressing relationships. A significant majority of executives attribute business outcomes to face-to-face engagement, and senior leaders consistently rank it as critical to success.
The pattern is clear. When interaction improves, outcomes follow.
The Measurement Problem Still Holding Hospitality Back
Hospitality, when designed properly, creates the conditions for that valuable interaction. Where many businesses go wrong is not in the investment, but in how they evaluate it.
The default question is often: did this event generate a deal? It is an understandable question, but it is the wrong one.
Relationships do not convert in single moments. They build momentum over time. And hospitality plays a role across that journey, not just at the end of it. The most effective organisations take a more structured, layered approach to understanding return.
A Practical Model for Measuring Hospitality ROI
Recognise that value builds progressively, and they measure accordingly.
1. Objective
- What is the commercial role of this experience?
- Is it designed to open new relationships, strengthen existing ones, or move opportunities forward?
Without clarity here, ROI becomes difficult to define.
2. Input
What is actually being invested?
This goes beyond budget. It includes;
- relevance of the experience, plus any tailored extras or add-ons that will cater to tastes,
- the quality of the guest list including selection of stakeholders,
- how well the environment aligns to the people attending and the objectives mentioned above.
Two identical spends can deliver entirely different outcomes.
3. Output (Short-term)
What happened on the day?
Not just attendance, but engagement.
- Were conversations meaningful?
- Did people spend time together?
- Did the environment allow interaction to flow naturally?
These are leading indicators of value.
4. Outcome (Medium-term)
What changed afterwards?
- This is where hospitality begins to show its commercial influence.
- Stronger access to decision-makers
- Conversations progressing more easily
- Faster, more engaged follow-up
- Expanded stakeholder relationships
These shifts are often visible before revenue is.
5. Return (Long-term)
What is the commercial impact over time?
This is where more traditional metrics apply:
- Deal conversion rates (over time)
- Average deal value (over time)
- Retention and renewal
- Cross-sell and upsell
- Overall client lifetime value
When tracked properly, hosted relationships consistently outperform those that are not.
When viewed through this lens, a clearer formula emerges:
ROI = (Incremental Revenue + Retention Value + Pipeline Acceleration) ÷ Experience Investment
This is not about attributing one deal to one event.
It is about understanding how the experience improved:
- The speed of decisions
- The quality of relationships
- The likelihood of conversion
- That is where the real return sits.
Where ROI Is Actually Created
One of the most important shifts in thinking is that ROI is not created after the event. It is created during it.
I too often see businesses focus heavily on follow-up, while underestimating or poorly planning around what happens on the day itself.
If the environment does not allow the right conversations to happen naturally, if the guest mix lacks relevance, or if time feels constrained, the opportunity is already reduced.
Equally, when those elements are right, outcomes improve without needing to be forced.
The difference is not just the setting. It is how the experience is designed to work.
What High-Performing Hospitality Looks Like
The strongest-performing experiences are rarely accidental.
They are chosen and planned carefully, with a clear rationale for who should be there. They are tailored to reflect genuine interests, not generic formats. Time is structured to allow conversation to flow, rather than be rushed. And everything is aligned intentionally, to a commercial outcome.
When this is done well, the experience feels effortless to the guest. But the return is anything but.
Why This Matters More Than Ever In A Hybrid World
Hybrid working has made time together more limited and more deliberate. Which means it carries more weight.
The businesses seeing the strongest results are not simply investing more in hospitality. They are using it more intelligently, recognising that connection no longer happens by default and must now be designed with intent.
The office once created relationships naturally. That is no longer guaranteed.
The opportunity now is not to recreate what has been lost, but to build something more effective in its place.
Because the real question is no longer whether hospitality is worth the investment.
It is whether you are using it to shape the kind of interactions that drive success for your business.
By Caroline McEleney – Co-Founder and Executive Director of Experience First, with nearly 30 years delivering commercial success across iconic UK venues including Formula 1 and Premier League environments
