DECA Innovations and Entrepreneurship Conference

A blend of workshops and competition, DECA’s Innovations and Entrepreneurship Conference will be the springboard for DECA members to unleash their ideas. The conference will foreshadow DECA’s coast-to-coast celebration of a hot topic in a visionary city as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

As the primary activity for the conference, DECA members will engage in an entrepreneurship challenge. In teams of four to five, DECA members will be given a scenario and challenged to deliver a 15-minute presentation to business executives serving as venture capitalists.

Along the way, a variety of industry experts will share innovative knowledge on product ideation, financing, marketing, social entrepreneurship, sustainable entrepreneurship and more. DECA members can use this insight as they develop their plans. After preliminary competition, finalist teams will have an opportunity to refine their plan before presenting it to the entire group and a panel of business executives.

Please note that this conference requires the capstone development of a pitch for an innovative business concept. Students are expected to actively participate in all sessions, workshops and collaboration time.

CLASSROOM CONNECTION

This conference will reinforce entrepreneurial concepts taught in marketing and business classes. Participation in this conference will help students understand the concepts, processes and skills associated with identifying new ideas, opportunities, and methods and with creating or starting a new project or venture through:

employing entrepreneurial discovery strategies to generate feasible ideas for business ventures
developing concepts for new business venture to evaluate its success potential
determining needed resources for a new business venture to contribute to its start-up viability

Entrepreneurship standards from the National Curriculum Standards for Business Administration, 2005.