Tracking Engagement Across a Portfolio: How Planning Teams Can Use Software to Reduce Risk

Date:
November 19, 2026

Location:

Time:
12:00 PM (EST)

Register

Planning teams rarely run one engagement at a time. The same residents, community groups, and Indigenous Nations often hear from several projects in a year, sometimes from different departments in the same week. When each file keeps its own contact list and notes, nobody sees the full picture. The gaps surface when an Ontario Land Tribunal appeal, a freedom of information request, or a provincial audit asks the team to prove what it did.

What you'll hear from our speakers

Sarah Hope

Sarah walks through where engagement risk builds up when records live in separate project files, and what consistent record-keeping looks like across a portfolio. She'll show the tools planning teams use to track engagement from project to project, so what you learn from one consultation shapes how you plan the next.

Stephan Richard

Stephan shares key engagement lessons from his tenure inside the Government of Nova Scotia and the non-profit sector. He'll talk through what planners can take from that experience and apply to their own projects.

What we'll cover:

• Six elements of effective engagement drawn from Canadian planning guidance and published research.

• The risks of tracking engagement file by file. We'll look at six kinds of risk that build up without a shared view.

• Why a shared view of engagement activity helps teams manage those risks effectively.

• Two real examples. The Government of Canada's "Getting Major Projects Built in Canada" discussion paper on overlapping federal consultation, and a case study from a Canadian federal agency.

• Where software fits. The capabilities planning teams use to manage relationship history, track commitments, report to regulators, and coordinate across projects.

You'll leave able to:

• Pressure-test your own engagement against the six requirements and spot your team's weakest one.

• Recognize the early signs a team has outgrown its own processes, before an appeal or records request exposes it.

• Apply key expert lessons on executing engagement as part of a planning team.


Speakers:

Sarah Hope, Head of Customer Success at Jambo and IAP2 trained practitioner

Sarah is an IAP2-trained professional with a background in stakeholder engagement. As Head of Customer Success at Jambo for five years, she has worked with planning and engagement teams across industries, learning their needs at every stage and advocating for tools that make their work easier.

Stephan Richard, Founder & CEO, Tailwind Growth Partners

Stephan is a social impact strategist and executive advisor with 17+ years bridging government policy, community housing, and cross-sector partnerships.

Moderator:

Ruth Chatukuta, Digital Marketing Lead, Jambo

Ruth is a marketing and communications expert who turns research and practitioner insights into resources for stakeholder engagement professionals. With 10+ years experience across SaaS, space, defence, FMCG and IT, she contributes regularly to the Stakeholder Engagement Community (SEC).