Written by Diane Carters, Head of Commercial Development at Broadsword. Diane led a campfire session at ICE (in house corporate event planners) Conference 2025, tackling how to align internal teams to create seamless and impactful event strategies.

“Is your brand navy or neon? 

That’s the question I asked last week at ICE Conference UK, where I had the pleasure of hosting a Campfire session called ‘Mind the gap, aligning Events, Marketing & Design teams.’

The essence of the session was to have an honest discussion about the challenges of cross-team collaboration in bringing events and experiences to life. In the session, we explored why that disconnect happens so often and offered up some tips and tricks from our lived experience of working with global brands.

The themes that emerged:

“We’re always reinventing the wheel.”
Many attendees described how even their biggest, recurring events feel like a scramble from scratch – because the right people aren’t in the room early enough.

“Marketing wants bold, Design wants control, and Events want feasibility.”
That line got a lot of nods. It’s not about finger-pointing – it’s about recognising that each team brings valid, but different, priorities to the table.

“Briefs arrive late, unclear, or overloaded.”
Whether it’s a 20-page brand doc or a one-liner like “make it immersive,” planners often find themselves translating unclear asks into workable experiences under pressure.

The solution?

We explored how you can bring about better collaboration between teams and (more importantly) avoid events teams being stuck in the middle and uncovered

Some tips and tools for better collaboration:

• Start with a shared language. Define what words like “luxury,” “interactive,” or “immersive” actually mean.  In the session we played a this or that game with colourful A or B paddles to help see where teams were aligned. Everyone needs to be clear on their brand attributes, particularly in the live event environment – choosing Navy or Neon in response to a question about your brand is a good example of a technique that helps build brand awareness and ensure everyone is on the same page.
• Create an Event Playbook. A consistent reference point that defines tone, tiers, formats and objectives across all event types. Having a good playbook sets the standard for how your events are positioned, designed and experienced. It is a single source of authority for brand attributes and flows through all touch points from tone of voice through to messaging and content strategy.
• Tier your events. Not everything needs fireworks — clarity on what’s Tier 1 vs Tier 3 helps allocate budget and plan resource efficiently. This is also an effective way of working with regional teams and creating a consistent look and feel to all your events that build credibility and trust with your client base.
• Involve everyone early and agree on roles and responsibilities and KPIs. Co-create the brief with marketing, content, creative and events — not just pass it down the line.
• Standardise procedures like feedback collection,  not just from attendees but from internal teams as well. It builds a shared view of what is working. You can also use the playbook to capture ideas for smooth event execution  – AI summaries of sessions, speaker presentation guidance or ESG fundamentals.

What’s Next?

If you joined the session — thank you. Your honesty, humour and insights made it a real highlight. If you didn’t — and you’re navigating these same challenges — I’d love to keep the conversation going.

Broadsword run creative facilitation sessions to help align teams at the start of projects, exploring opportunities to transform your events and create a shared vision for everyone with clear and actionable results”.

Get in touch with us now to discuss your next project.