I was a speaker at the IntraTeam conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, this past week. The conference was held at the Radisson Blu hotel, which is also where I stayed for three nights.

As I do just about everywhere I go, upon settling into my room I checked in on Foursquare. What popped up was far more valuable than the usual nearby offers or generic tips that usually accompany a check-in. A tip from IntraTeam leader Kurt Kragh Sorensen was more than just interesting. It was potentially life-saving:

In March 2010, a Norwegian flight attendant working for SAS was found dead in her Radisson Blu room. She had been savagely beaten. There was speculation that she had opened the door to her attacker, but there was also some discussion about the possibility that her door never closed completely, allowing her attacker to enter.

The point isn’t to relay a grisly story of a tragic death, but to highlight the potential real benefit of participation in a geolocation service like Foursquare or Gowalla. The value is with the network of people with whom you connect and the larger group of people who leave tips. You can be sure that I gave that door an extra tug every time I left my room, something I’m not all that inclined to do in most hotels. (Although maybe I will now.)

While in New York, I was part of a group of speakers at a Conference Board session who went for dinner to a Greek restaurant, Uncle Nick’s Ouzaria, in Hell’s Kitchen. As the four of us checked in, all our smartphones buzzed instantly with a dining recommendation from Chris Heuer, with whom we were all connected. It’s not a life-or-death tip, but a reason businesses might consider encouraging check-ins.

I mention this because so many of the businesses I talk with are skeptical of any value they might accrue from geolocation services. Like virtually everything else in the social space, it’s not about the technology. It’s about the people.