Whatnow convened more than 40 of New York City’s most active restaurant operators on November 12 for an intimate RoundTable at Lulla inside the Motto Chelsea by Hilton, bringing the community together for a focused conversation on guest retention, automation, and data-driven hospitality.
The session featured SevenRooms, which offered an in-depth look at how its platform is helping operators strengthen guest relationships at scale—knowledge that carries new weight following the company’s recent acquisition by DoorDash.
The RoundTable centered on one of the industry’s most pressing and universal challenges: how to transform first-time guests into loyal repeat visitors. SevenRooms’ Alana Rudman guided operators through a presentation, “From First-Timer to Regular: Using Rich Guest Data to Cultivate Relationships,” outlining workflows that demonstrate how restaurants can use data to deliver highly personalized experiences both before and after each visit. Examples included automated re-engagement emails, VIP tagging, AI-generated review insights, and elevated touchpoints that bring consistency across locations.
The session drew a diverse group of operators representing a wide range of concepts and growth stages. Attendees included Carnegie Hospitality, Gi Di Hospitality, Healthy as a Motha, AO Hospitality, City Winery, Champagne Problems, and so many more. Their participation highlighted not only the importance of the topic, but also the appetite within the NYC market for practical, operator-focused education.
For SevenRooms, the event came at a pivotal moment. The company’s integration with DoorDash gives restaurants a far more complete view of guest behavior across channels, opening new opportunities to personalize marketing, refine service, and capture long-term value. Throughout the discussion, operators expressed interest in how this expanded ecosystem could strengthen direct customer relationships and reduce reliance on disjointed or manual processes.
The RoundTable format itself is intentionally designed to go deep on a single operational theme rather than cover a broad range of topics. Each session gives operators the opportunity to benchmark approaches, share challenges, and collaborate in a candid, small-group setting. This installment focused on the mechanics of guest retention—how and when to trigger automated outreach, how to identify lapsed guests, how to centralize guest history across locations, and how to deliver service that feels personalized without becoming burdensome for staff.
“At Whatnow, our commitment to supporting operators of physical spaces goes well beyond news reporting,” Whatnow’s Director of Events, Mariah Medley, said. “Through our vetted Preferred Partners, we help operators navigate what’s new and next in running a hospitality business—and we’re focused on supporting their growth at every stage. SevenRooms’ ability to plug directly into DoorDash’s marketplace makes their offering not just compelling, but undeniable.”
The event complements Whatnow’s national Accelerate Event program, which hosts 62 city-specific gatherings across 31 markets each year to connect operators with their peers alongside vetted industry Partners. While Accelerate provides scale and access, the RoundTable series offers a more tactical environment where operators can dive deeper into the tools reshaping hospitality.
As the evening concluded, attendees continued conversations well beyond the scheduled program, reflecting the collaborative energy that has come to define these sessions. In a market as fast-moving—and as competitive—as New York City, moments like this provide rare space for operators to learn from one another while discovering innovative solutions that support their long-term growth.
