DECA Adventures In Washington D.C.

Over the last two years I was involved in DECA, one of the marketing and business clubs you can find at most universities. For the first year I kinda just sat around enjoying guest speakers, brainstorms about business and hung out with like-minded people. I didn’t take part in the competitions or travels that they did as a club my first year. The next year I finally sucked it up and I decided to compete and get involved to really test my skills.

Follow Your Passion And Join A Club

DECA as a great club to get involved in if you love business and marketing. You can really test yourself by being involved in competition state wide and internationally with some of the best students around the world. I went up to weber state university and did prepared event at competition where I built out a Emerging technology Marketing Strategies campaign for a three day music festival. I had the chance to present in 20 to 25 minutes to panel of judges from the industry. While preparing for the competition I was stoked since I had been to some music festivals that were actually three night electronic music festival(perfect competition for me). I felt that I had a upper hand at designing a good marketing plan for this kind of event.

Handling Problems In The Competition

The only problem I had was at state I was not fully prepared with real numbers, even though all of this was hypothetical and built as a model. When I went to internationals I was more prepared and ready to give them some good numbers. At state I went with a good buddy and we both made finalists, I took third in state, he took second, and were excited to go on to the international DECA competition in Washington D.C. Sadly he was unable to make it to internationals that year due to family events that were previously planned. I was headed to internationals myself with the rest of the DECA state finalists. I was nervous, excited and it was kind of strange that we would pay out this much money to compete and stress ourselves out in the end of the school year. Our international competition was during finals week so imagine the stress levels of a senior about to graduate.

Making It Happen At Internationals

Working with teachers to move my finals so that I could go to Washington D.C. and compete. I was able to come up with the money on my own and through DECA fundraising for quite an awesome experience in all. I was very excited and scared but was able to present well. I was able to impress the judges enough that I made it to the top ten international finalists. To my surprise I was able to sway the next set of judges for the finals competition and sweep the nation with a first-place prize, winning it for Dixie State University and myself in the Emerging Technologies Marketing Strategies event. I was ecstatic and so amazed that I was able to pull it off. I just did my best on the event and it was something I was already really passionate about so I guess that really showed through to the judges. I would highly recommend giving DECA a try if you’re in college and thinking about getting involved in business or marketing.