Official Competitive Events
Learn more about each competitive event. Check out this link for National DECA’s official list of competitive events for DECA’s International Career Development Conference. Search by Event Title, Career Cluster or Category. Find Sample exams, events, guidelines, advice and more!
For Students – A dedicated DECA resource for you!
Visit decadirect.org for announcements, scholarships, and great insights on competitions, chapter, career, college and more! Here are a few examples.
Pitch Decks: Your Questions Answered
New for the 2025-26 school year, six competitive events will replace the previously required 10-page written paper with a 20-slide pitch deck. Check out this link for a number of FAQs on these changes to help answer any questions you have.
In the Judge’s Mind: What Makes You Stand Out in Your DECA Role-play
Go beyond the official rubric to reveal the unwritten expectations of role-play judges to truly understand what it takes to score well. Learn from several experienced judges about the details that separate the solid role-plays from the unforgettable ones.
How to Win Roleplays: The Art of Being Performative
Winning a DECA role-play is not always about who knows the most; it’s about who acts like they do. Welcome to the art of being performative – not in the “acting fake” sense, but in how you bring your ideas to life.
For Advisors – Best Practices, Models and Samples
Visit deca.org/resources for hundreds of instructional videos. Here are a few examples.
Competitive Edge
Tips will be shared with teachers to help students get a competitive edge in role plays and prepared events. Various presentation strategies will be discussed with an opportunity for everyone to share best practices as well.
Pitch Perfect-Mastering the Art of Pitch Decks
Discover tools and strategies to guide your students in crafting winning pitch decks. Explore elements of a compelling pitch—storytelling, key design principles and alignment to DECA competitive events.
Competitive Events | DECA Basic Training
Get an overview of DECA’s Competitive Events Program, as well as how to help students select competitive events and resources for competition preparation.
DECA Project Management Events: Managing all 6
Project Management Events are a great way for chapters to get involved with their communities at a grass roots level. If you do one or all of the six project management events this session will give insight to the magnitude of both student and advisor work and obligations. This session will review the project management tools available as well as tips, tricks, and roadblocks associated with the events. You can do all six if you attend this session.
The Making of a DECA Role-play
Have you ever wondered where that case study or role-play came from? There’s a methodology behind the creation of DECA role-plays and case studies. Learn everything you need to know, including instructional areas, performance indicators, levels of progression, inspirational sources and industry validation.
Chapter Advisor Professional Learning Series
Below is a series of content-rich professional development modules from 2014-2016 and corresponding materials to assist chapter advisors in incorporating DECA into their classrooms and strengthening their chapters.
2016 MODULES
Module One: Chapter Communication Strategies
In order to have a successful chapter, you need to have a strong communications strategy that keeps all your constituents informed. Creating a strong social media presence will keep your members engaged and informed year around. In order to do so, you need to understand which of your social media platforms are performing properly and which need some extra work. It is also imperative that you identify your main audiences and understand the best communication avenues to reach these specific groups.
Module Two: Chapter Enhancement through Project Management
Reaching exceptional levels does not occur because of any one major initiative. It is built on a combination of little acts of excellence. Discover how to deliver projects and activities with intentional acts of planning, implementation, communication and evaluation to make the mission of DECA come to life for members.
Module Three: Flipping the Classroom with DECA
The concept of a flipped classroom has been around for a few years. The differentiated flipped classroom creates a learning environment with student structure, student responsibility, interaction between the instructor and students, and student engagement. Learn how to do what you do best, utilize activities from some of DECA’s Comprehensive Learning Programs and set the stage for a powerful classroom learning environment.
Module Four: Leveraging Your DECA Network
Are you in need of bite sized training tips for partnership development? Each one of us connects with existing and potential partners whether we realize it or not. Maybe you are unsure how to engage the diverse audience. Discover how to leverage your DECA network with school administrators, faculty, parents, district and state administrators, and business community. Leave with strategies for utilizing your DECA network to open doors to effective partnership development.
Module Five: Beyond the Stage
DECA continues to be a leader in supporting key educational initiatives through its comprehensive learning program, including competitive events. DECA’s Competitive Events Program directly supports Career Clusters®, National Curriculum Standards and 21st Century Skills. DECA advisors must be knowledgeable on these concepts to understand the framework of DECA’s Competitive Events Program and how it supports learning and achievement.
2015 MODULES
Module One: New Advisor Module: Be a Hero – New Advisor 101
DECA advisors are often the teachers who students remember long after graduating high school. Learn how you can be a hero in the eyes of your students by sharing the DECA experience with them through classroom instruction. Get an overview of DECA’s structure, your role as an advisor, how to manage your chapter, DECA programs and how to gain support for your chapter. Discover resources that will help you integrate DECA into classroom instruction, apply learning, connect to business and promote competition.
Module Two: Competitive Events Super Success System
DECA advisors often wonder how to create a comprehensive system to help members succeed in DECA’s Competitive Events Program. This session is designed to lay the groundwork for you to create a customized system to help your chapter members succeed in competitive events. At the conclusion of this session, you’ll leave with the tools necessary to formulate your chapter’s plan.
Module Three: Chapter Strategy
Strategy is essential to any successful enterprise and entrepreneurial leader. How people, ideas and resources come together to achieve results for stakeholders is the key job of the DECA executive leader. Understanding the core elements of a successful DECA Chapter Strategy is the first step toward realizing the full potential of your chapter. And, the first step of strategy is understanding and believing in the importance of the mission.
Module Four: Lean Business Method
DECA’s Entrepreneurship Competitive Events are undergoing a major transformation. If you utilize DECA’s Entrepreneurship Events as part of your courses, you need to understand the changes and the rationale for the changes. Learn how and why DECA is aligning entrepreneurship competitive events with the lean startup business model. Attendees will leave with a better understanding of the lean startup business model and canvas, outlines of the entrepreneurship competitive events, and have the opportunity to begin planning how to integrate the entrepreneurship events and activities into their programs and courses.
- Lean Business Method Training Video
- Handout 1 – Lean Canvas Model
- Handout 2 – DECA’s Entrepreneurship Events
- Handout 3 – Lean Startup Business Model
- Handout 4 – DECA Guide 2016 EIP
- Handout 5 – DECA Guide 2016 ESB
- Handout 6 – DECA Guide 2016 EIB
- Handout 7 – DECA Guide 2016 IBP
- Handout 8 – DECA Guide 2016 EFB
- Handout 9 – DECA Guide 2016 EBG
- Lean Business Method Evaluation Form
Module Five: Diamond Fundraising
Just like businesses have financial growth plans, DECA chapters also need to create financial plans that support forecasted expenses, identify possible revenue sources, and diversifies access to financial resources. The module helps DECA advisors and chapter leaders develop a diversified fundraising model to support the chapter’s annual activities.
Module Six: Let’s Talk About DECA
Need to garner deeper support for DECA learning activities from your administration? This session helps campus administrators understand how DECA’s Comprehensive Learning Program aligns with education initiatives and enriches the student learning environment. Packed with resources to share with prospective administrators such as the Let’s Talk About DECA video, presentation slideshow and promotional flyer, this content allows you to have conversations with existing and potential stakeholders.
2014 MODULES
Module One: Be a Hero – New Advisor 101
DECA advisors are often the teachers who students remember long after graduating high school. Learn how you can be a hero in the eyes of your students by sharing the DECA experience with them through classroom instruction. Get an overview of DECA’s structure, your role as an advisor, how to manage your chapter, DECA programs and how to gain support for your chapter. Discover resources that will help you integrate DECA into classroom instruction, apply learning, connect to business and promote competition.
Module Two: DECA Can Be Your Best Friend
Demostrating how DECA supports key educational initiatives helps position our local programs as rigorous, relevant and essential to helping achieve the school’s overall goals. Furthermore, this module helps DECA advisors enhance their instructional steategies through making connections to educational initiatives and best practice sharing.
Module Three: Engaging Every Member
Studies show that involvement in relevant student activities boosts academic performance, reduces dropout risks, builds social and emotional skills, sets students up to make better choices, reduces high risk behaviors and ultimately leads to college and career success. Activities such as DECA, that support the curriculum, provide students with the skills needed to make the successful transition to college and career. Actively engaging all students in DECA actviities in the classroom helps them connect learning with real-world applications.
Module Four: DECA Advocacy Tips
DECA advisors are responsible for determining best practices that provide opportunities to share DECA’s mission and values. By discovering outreach possibilities in their own community that support DECA’s vision, strategies to connect chapter goals to education and community activities will emerge. Advisors will become better prepared to provide outreach experiences as extended learning options for chapter members.
Module Five: Idea Generation Through Entrepreneurship
DECA’s mission is to prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in multiple career clusters. Crucial steps in the preparation process include identifying trends in entrepreneurship, providing learning activities in entrepreneurship and utilizing creative instructional content. DECA’s entrepreneurship-related competitive events and learning programs activities address trends in entrepreneurship while supporting effective learning through an entrepreneurship curriculum.
Module Six: Using Written Events as Major Course Projects
DECA advisors are first and foremost, classroom teachers. Learn how you can utilize DECA’s written and prepared events as authentic learning experiences to help students learn and develop skills outlined in the curriculum. Get an overview of DECA’s written and prepared competitive events, an introduction into project-based learning (PBL) and participate in guided activities to help you select competitive events that support your curriculum. Discover how DECA can support student learning and achievement while also motivating and engaging students.