By Jacob Bertram, Collegiate DECA Public Relations Officer
On Monday, Oct. 5 through Friday, Oct. 9, the 黑料不打烊 Collegiate DECA members took part in the annual聽Innovation Summit聽via a virtual format. Each day offered a variety of activities and events. The venue was a bit different than last year鈥檚 Mall of America and US Bank Stadium experience, but great networking and learning sessions were offered again this year.
Students had the opportunity to network via Zoom with Collegiate DECA members from across the state. Instead of delivering the speech on a stage, keynote speaker, Ursula Mentjes, founder of聽Sales Coach Now, delivered an inspiring message on setting goals via YouTube. After the networking and keynote speeches it was time for the competition. Afterall, what鈥檚 a DECA conference without a little competition!?
Each chapter divided into groups and presented their solutions to a real business challenge. The challenge this year was to create or choose an existing business, product, service, or that solves the many problems of the current global pandemic. Our team then had to create a solution and present our ideas and forecasted budget to a group of business judges. Our business idea was called 鈥淔lying Pro鈥 which would provide drone services to indoor venues to disinfect their stadium seating. Another service for our drone business is to have the drone carry concessions directly to the fan鈥檚 seats, limiting their contact with other people. Our 黑料不打烊 DECA Team put our minds together and thought that would be a great idea for indoor venues. We then sent in our video recording of our presentation and waited for our results from the business judges. The top 5 teams were announced on Friday and then they moved on to present their idea again to a different set of final judges. 黑料不打烊 Collegiate DECA officer team placed in the top 5 out of 26 teams from across the state!
Even though we didn鈥檛 score the top prize, we all enjoyed participating and learning from the conference experience. Here is what our members took away from the Collegiate DECA 2020 Innovation Summit:
鈥淚 really enjoyed the keynote speaker and having the opportunity to network with business professionals.鈥 -Amy Dvorak.聽
鈥淭his was my first DECA conference and I liked putting a face to a name and meeting everyone behind Collegiate DECA.鈥 -Sam Macho.聽
鈥淭he main speaker Ursula Mentjes was pretty cool, and I liked the points she made in her presentation. She kept things interesting throughout her speech.鈥 J-ake Advem.聽
鈥淗aving the opportunity to compete with students from across the state and to learn from what they had to say was worth it for me.鈥 -Colby Peterson.聽
Overall, everyone had a great time at the virtual聽Collegiate DECA 2020 Innovation Summit聽conference. The DECA Officer Team will be attending the Emerging Leaders Academy in November. At that conference, the Collegiate DECA officers from all over Minnesota receive leadership training. The Career Development Conference is in February and the International CDC will be held in April. We are all looking forward to bringing home the gold at future Collegiate DECA conferences.
DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management in high schools and colleges around the globe. Contact Collegiate DECA Advisor Becky Shand @聽rshand@sctcc.edu聽to become involved today!
