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The Stakeholder Engagement Room: Live
Six monthly conversations for people who do stakeholder engagement for a living, with Rhion Jones and Victoria Adamson
A monthly hour for the stakeholder engagement community
For four years, we've been bringing the stakeholder engagement community together once a year. The obvious problem with once a year is the other 364 days.
So from October we are running a monthly version. An hour, first Monday of the month, free and open to anyone working in stakeholder engagement, whatever software you use.
Vicky Adamson chairs the sessions and Rhion Jones brings his expertise into each topic, with a provocative take.
These sessions are aimed at engagement practioners, with or without the job title, and existing Tractivity clients.
How each session runs:
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Welcome, and the question
Vicky Adamson opens: a brief word on Tractivity for anyone who does not know us, what we want the Stakeholder Engagement Room to be, how long we will take and how the recording works.
She then sets up the subject, which is a deliberately provocative one, and introduces Rhion.
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Rhion’s opening, with slides
A quick history of how stakeholder engagement became stakeholder management, the objectives behind it, the techniques in common use, and why the changes coming will land hardest on the NHS, councils and regulators.
He closes by putting his questions to the room. Use the chat while he talks.
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Discussion, and what we heard
Twenty to twenty-five minutes of open discussion, chaired by Vicky, with as many voices in it as we can get. Rhion then takes two minutes to sum up what he heard and closes on a final thought.
If the conversation runs dry we finish early rather than fill the time. The recording and a transcript follow the next day.
Session 1: Stakeholder management is everyone’s job
Monday 5 October 2026, 1pm - 1:50pm
Specialist teams have led stakeholder management for years. But in most organisations, the number of people whose work depends on key relationships now stretches well beyond them. Is that a question of internal education and minimum standards, or can good stakeholder management become a genuine corporate capability? Rhion opens the series with the argument, and guest practitioners push back.
You will leave with: a clearer view of which roles in your organisation are already doing engagement work without calling it that.
Session 2: Managing difficult stakeholder relationships
Monday 2 November 2026, 1pm - 1:50pm
Conflicting interests, competing obligations, relationships under real pressure. Every practitioner has them. This session looks at genuinely difficult situations, the communication and crisis techniques that help, and gives you space to swap experience with peers who have had the same conversations.
You will leave with: techniques you can use in the next difficult conversation, and the reassurance that yours are not unusual.
Session 3: The ‘stakeholder’ concept: spin or substance?
Monday 7 December 2026, 1pm - 1:50pm
If you have ever tired of explaining your job to sceptical colleagues, this one is for you. Even people familiar with the term struggle to pin down what ‘stakeholder’ really means. We take apart the myths around the language, and you tell us how you describe the role, and defend its value, inside your own organisation.
You will leave with: a sharper way of describing what you do to the people who fund it.
Session 4: Stakeholder mapping: getting more from the matrix
Monday 11 January 2027, 1pm - 1:50pm
Most teams map stakeholders once, file the matrix and move on. This session looks at how different forms of mapping, from interest and influence grids to relationship and network views, can shape how you plan, deliver and evidence engagement. Bring an example if you have one.
You will leave with: two or three mapping approaches beyond the standard grid, and a sense of when each earns its keep.
Session 5: Short-term pressures, long-term stakeholder relationships
Monday 1 February 2027, 1pm - 1:50pm
Long-term relationships are the goal. Short-term pressures intrude anyway, and most of them arrive unannounced. This session explores the working practices, and the systems, that stop short-term thinking undoing years of relationship building.
You will leave with: practical ways to protect the relationship record when a programme suddenly changes shape.
Session 6: Building a stakeholder-first culture, and spotting a fake one
Monday 1 March 2027, 1pm - 1:50pm
Plenty of organisations aspire to be seen as stakeholder-conscious. Few manage it. We close the series on the values and behaviours that separate the organisations that succeed from the ones that just say it, and what leaders can do to close the gap.
You will leave with: the questions to ask inside your own organisation to tell a culture from a claim.
You can find more information on these sessions on the Tractivity website; just click here.