🚌 DECA Fall Leadership Conference 2022 🚌

I joined DECA at the beginning of the school year and I learned about the conference on the first day that I joined. I was able to get the scholarship for transportation and living cost for the conference. The conference is at Bellevue which is right next to Seattle, and It starts on Sunday and ends on Tuesday so it's 3 days and 2 nights total. And all I have to say is that it was a total blast🙃.

I got dressed in a suit because everyone had to be in business attire for the entire time at the conference. We went on the bus with 2 other schools which is GK and Spanaway Lake. On the first day, we arrived around 3 pm and when we all got all of our rooms, we then went to walk around the mall since the conference hasn't started yet. After going to the mall and almost got lost, we then ate pizza for dinner in Ms. Pike's room. She went through a bunch of stuff that we will have to do during these 3 days. Afterward, we joined the opening session and Chris Nguyen was our guest speaker. He talked about his journey from DECA to becoming a reporter for CNN. It was very interesting.

The next day, me and Zim ate the leftover pizzas for breakfast, we then head to our first session which is about The biggest changes, trends in social, digital consumer behavior. Here are my notes from the session:

Humans buy stories. The story is more powerful for the brand, and the best story wins. Turn that complex idea into a story. A story has to be interesting, relevant, and relatable. VR can create experience and memories which make the brand more memorable. Deepfakes can be used as a weapon to attack businesses so you must find out whether its real or not. You must keep up with the technology. What kind of content that our customers are looking for? What kind of environment are they in? Customers want solution and content that are relevant and interesting. Consumer behavior continue to change and will always change. Social media compliments the overall of marketing.

As you can see the whole lesson was pretty broad but very interesting nonetheless.

Later on, we went to the Exploration Expo and Zim applied for Grand Canyon University. Then, we went to get lunch at Panda Express. It was my first time eating Panda Express and tasted like Americanized Chinese food but delicious. Later, we then went to another session which is about 3 Secrets of Great Leaders. Here are the notes that I took from the session:

Leadership is about being clear and helping them get to their goals. First, you need to know about everything you do so then you have the right to lead and teach others. Leadership is an action, not a title. It does not matter what you are, it's what you do that matters. So whenever you have the opportunity to step up and lead, please try it. To be a good leader you need to be a good follower first, you need to back down and let others share their voices. You have to make sure that everyone in the room gets to share. "Does anyone have more opinion", "Anything you want to share". You have to choose to improve your leadership skills. Don't ever think you know all the answers and don't forget to utilize your team's abilities.  When you mess up, you must acknowledge your mistakes, apologize for it, and move on. You also need to build a relationship with people so they will be more motivated on what they need to do and then you will be able to read people.

This session was very informative and it can really help me use the knowledge in Civil Cadet Program that I'm currently in. Me and Zim then head to another session about Building your Brand. Here are the notes I took from the session:

Branding is all about how others see you. It is how you present yourself to current and potential employers, customers, and clients. It is important that you ensure that your brand is how you would like people to see you. Start branding youself from your values, then think about your gifts and talents, and lastly is thinking about your personality. You should also get a Linkedln account. You should list your values/gifts and rank them, choose which one you think connects with the field that you're interested in. You need to always be careful on what you post on social media. Whatever you post on your social media reflects the company you work for.

This session is another great one and I had a really good time. Afterwards, me and Zim then go to a session about Preparing for Competition. Here are the notes I took from the session:

You need to know what's going on inside the industry or field that you're competing in. Role-play competition cases usually comes from relevant news. You should never tell your judge that you don't know what you're doing. Eye contact is important because it shows that you are trying to connect. Posture is important because it shows that you're confidence.

The session was very useful but there were definitely some odd moments. In the evening, I then went to eat dinner with the entire club. We went to a really fancy Italian restaurant, and I had spaghetti & meatballs. It was really good😊. After finishing, we all went to join the closing session with another guest speaker who's a life coach. Later that night, we did to the C.O.R.E. night activity where we were explained DECA's core values.

The next day, I had to do a role-play of a job interview with a judge and overall it went pretty well. The judge told me that I should get a tie and sometimes I panick and don't answer the right question. After that, I did a principle of marketing role-play, the judge was an angry customer and I was the manager who had to resolve the problem. Overall it went well, the judge told me that I just need to be more sympathetic and sound more kind toward the customer. Afterward, I went to get another lunch at Panda Express and bought a long sleeve shirt from Uniqlo for 30$. Then, the bus came to pick us up and we got back to school right when the school ended so I sat on the school bus in my suit with my luggage for my ride back home.

Song of the day (Nas finally dropped KD3🤯 and its fire)