Virtual Stakeholder Consultation Facilitation Services

Engaging stakeholders online doesn’t have to feel flat, chaotic, or performative. Done well, virtual consultations can be more inclusive, more efficient, and more insightful than traditional in‑person sessions—and that’s exactly what we design and facilitate.

We help you plan and run high‑quality virtual stakeholder consultations that build trust, surface real perspectives, and support confident, defensible decisions.

Why choose us for virtual stakeholder consultations

Deep experience in virtual engagement

We’ve been facilitating virtual meetings and consultations for well over a decade. Long before online engagement became the norm, we were:

• Designing and facilitating virtual meetings (since 2007)
• Running virtual focus groups and consultations (since 2014)
• Training other facilitators to use synchronous and asynchronous online tools (since 2012)

You’re not experimenting with us—you’re working with a team that has already done the learning, testing, and refining.

Certified, neutral professional facilitators

Certified Professional Facilitators bring structure, neutrality, and process expertise to your consultation.

• Neutral third‑party: We create space where stakeholders feel safe to speak honestly.
• Process experts: We design agendas and methods that move beyond surface comments to meaningful insight.
• Technology‑savvy: We pair facilitation skill with strong virtual meeting production, so the tech supports the process—not the other way around.

You stay focused on the content and relationships; we handle the process and logistics.

Designed to reduce groupthink and increase honest input

Virtual formats, when designed well, can actually reduce groupthink and social pressure. Participants who might stay quiet in a room full of people often feel more comfortable sharing online.

We use a mix of tools and techniques—breakouts, polls, chat, whiteboards, anonymous input—to:

• Hear from quieter voices
• Balance dominant perspectives
• Capture both qualitative stories and quantitative signals

The result: richer, more representative input you can actually use.

What we do for your virtual stakeholder consultation

Consultation design and planning

We work with you to clarify:

• Purpose: What decisions will this consultation inform?
• Stakeholders: Who needs to be in the conversation—and why?
• Methods: What mix of plenary, breakout, and asynchronous tools will work best?

From there, we design a custom consultation plan that fits your context, constraints, and goals.

Question and discussion guide development

Great consultations start with great questions.

With over two decades of facilitation design experience, we’ve written thousands of questions for stakeholder engagement processes. We:

• Draft and refine discussion questions that go beyond “What do you think?”
• Structure the flow so conversations move from context to exploration to concrete input
• Align questions with your decision needs so the data you collect is actually usable

We’re not here to script your stakeholders. We’re here to help you ask the right things in the right way.

Full virtual event production and logistics

We can host your consultation on your platform or ours, including tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, GoToMeeting, and others.

Our support can include:

• Platform setup and configuration
• Registration and participant communications
• Technical run‑throughs and “sandbox sessions” for presenters and attendees
• Live virtual production (managing breakout rooms, polls, chat, recordings, etc.)

You don’t have to juggle facilitation, tech, and stakeholder dynamics all at once—we’ve got the back‑end covered.

Live facilitation and moderation

During the consultation, our facilitators:

• Set clear expectations and ground rules
• Guide discussions to stay on topic and on time
• Ensure balanced participation across stakeholder groups
• Manage “high‑heat” or contentious moments with calm, structure, and fairness

We’re experienced in contentious or high‑stakes consultations and bring the same level of care online as we do in person.

Documentation and synthesis

After the session, we can provide:

• Thematic summaries of what we heard
• Key insights and patterns across stakeholder groups
• High‑level recommendations on how to use the input in your decision‑making

You walk away with more than a recording—you get clear, organized outputs that support next steps.

Who we work with

We regularly support:

• All levels of government (municipal, regional, provincial, federal)
• Healthcare organizations and research teams
• Post‑secondary institutions
• Not‑for‑profits and community organizations
• Public and private sector organizations managing complex change or impact

Whether you’re consulting on policy, planning, infrastructure, services, or strategy, we bring process and facilitation expertise—you bring the content.

Types of virtual stakeholder consultations we support

Ask us about virtual options for:

• Public and stakeholder consultations
• Policy and program input sessions
• Strategic planning and priority‑setting
• Action and implementation planning
• Focus groups and advisory panels
• Mission, vision, values and guiding principles
• Service design and improvement workshops
• Contentious or “high‑heat” public meetings

If it involves multiple perspectives, real decisions, and the need for genuine participation, we can help you design and facilitate it virtually.

Why virtual can be better than in‑person

Some projects are not just possible virtually, they are better virtually:

• Broader reach: Include people who can’t travel or attend in person.
• More flexible formats: Combine live sessions with asynchronous input.
• Reduced pressure: Participants often feel safer sharing online, leading to more honest feedback.
• Efficient use of time: Shorter, focused sessions that respect people’s schedules.

Virtual stakeholder consultations, when thoughtfully designed, can be more inclusive, more efficient, and more insightful than traditional formats.

Ready to plan your virtual stakeholder consultation?

If you’re planning a stakeholder consultation and want it to be engaging, credible, and well‑run, let’s talk.

We’ll help you:

• Clarify your goals and stakeholders
• Design a virtual consultation that fits your context
• Facilitate sessions that surface real insight and build trust

Get in touch to discuss your next virtual stakeholder consultation.