The 2025-2026 topic for each career category is for participants to collaborate with a local business or organization to seek and incorporate customer feedback into the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and overall business strategies. Using the research findings, participants will develop a CSR strategy to achieve internal/external results.
Resources:
Starbucks and the Magic of Artificial Intelligence: Enhancing Coffee and Customer Experiences
5 Ways Amazon is using AI to improve your holiday shopping and deliver your package faster
How to integrate AI into your business to make it more productive
A Step-By-Step Process For Implementing AI In A Small Business
The Business Growth Plan involves the idea generation and strategy development needed to grow an existing business. Participants in the Business Growth Plan will analyze their current business operations and identify opportunities to grow and expand the business. STUDENT MUST LEGALLY OWN THE BUSINESS.
The purpose of the Franchise Business Plan Event is designed for participants to present a comprehensive business plan proposal to buy into an existing franchise. The participant seeks to become a franchisee.
The Independent Business Plan Event involves the development of a comprehensive proposal to start a new business. Any type of business may be used.
The International Business Plan Event involves the development of a proposal to start a new business venture in an international setting. Any type of business may be used.
The Innovation Plan Event involves the idea generation and opportunity recognition needed to take advantage of market opportunities to introduce a new business, product or service. Any type of business, product or service may be used.
The purpose of the Start-Up Business Plan Event is to provide an opportunity for the participant to develop and present a proposal to form a business. The event provides an opportunity for a participant to develop and demonstrate mastery of essential knowledge and skills as they apply to the analysis of a business opportunity.
The Integrated Marketing Campaign—Event includes a campaign that is related to any sports and entertainment event and/or company event. Examples include concerts, festivals, fairs, tournaments, pet adoption day, charity events, etc.
The Integrated Marketing Campaign—Product includes a campaign that is related to any hard/soft line retail products including e-commerce. Examples include apparel and accessories, retail products, etc.
The Integrated Marketing Campaign—Service includes a campaign that is related to any service or intangible product. Examples may include pet services, golf lessons, health care services, salons, restaurants, amusement parks, etc.
Insights into the Industry
The Exam Blueprint Is Your Best Friend
Use the exam blueprint to focus your preparation efforts. You may prioritize studying instructional areas with the higher number of questions listed the blueprint.
Keep Expanding Your Knowledge
As you advance in competition, exam items become more specialized to the Career Cluster. Therefore, you should start with an understanding of general business concepts in the Business Administration Core and build on the knowledge within the Career Cluster of your competitive event.
Review Your Work
Don’t just take the exam! After you take the exam, compare your answers to the exam’s key. If you incorrectly answer a question, re-read the question, note the correct answer, and then read the descriptive key. The descriptive key explains the correct answer and why the other answers are incorrect. This will also help you understand the performance indicator addressed in the exam question.
Focus Your Efforts Where They Need To Be
Each exam question is linked to an instructional area. For each incorrect answer, tally the instructional area it matches. If you are noticing a pattern of incorrectly answering questions within particular instructional areas, spend more time learning the knowledge and skills within those instructional areas. Spend more time reviewing the performance indicators under those instructional areas.
Form Study Groups
Because there are only seven DECA exams, chances are high that some of your fellow chapters are taking the same exam as you, even if they are in a different competitive event. Use this opportunity to form study groups. You could consider taking the exam together and discussing the questions and answers. You could even divide and conquer to prepare study materials to help understand performance indicators.
Get In The Mode
Recreate the testing scene. Find out from your chapter advisor the setting for your exam during competition. Will you be taking the exam online through an electronic device prior to the competition, or using pencil and paper on-site during the competition? Find out how long you will have to take the test. Then try to replicate the setting using a practice test and using the same time frame you are given in competition.
Develop a Study Schedule
Make sure to study and prepare on a regular basis. Plan a study schedule and calendar leading up to your competition. Do not study right before you take the test. Instead, concentrate on being calm and confident in yourself when taking the exam.
Test Taking Techniques
When taking the exam, use these general test taking techniques:
Familiarize yourself with the format.
Read the question. Think about the answer.
Read all choices before choosing your answer.
Eliminate choices you know aren't correct.
If you get stuck, circle and come back.
Always take an educated guess.
If time allows, review your work.
Remain Positive!
Be confident. Refrain from engaging in negative discussions with other members prior to the exam, such as “I’m so nervous – I don’t know if I studied enough.”
For 2025-2026, you will assume the role of a sales representative for a company that specializes in subscription-based employee training and development platforms. A local non-profit executive director has scheduled a meeting with you to explore how your platform can help upskill their staff, improve customer service, and increase employee retention. The executive director is particularly interested in solutions that are cost-effective, easy to implement, and tailored to the unique challenges of the non-profit industry.
For 2025-2026, you will assume the role of director of sales for a company specializing in social media influencer partnership strategy. The vice president of marketing for a local convention and visitors bureau has scheduled a meeting with you to discuss using your services to create an influencer program to drive brand awareness, increase hotel occupancy and create authentic visitor engagement.
For 2025-2026, you will assume the role of a financial consultant who specializes in advising small business owners and entrepreneurs. A potential new client, a local artist who sells paintings, prints, sculptures, etc., has recently turned their passion into a successful online business. The potential new client has scheduled a meeting with you to discuss strategies for managing the rapid grow
First Things First
Consider your presentation your time to highlight the most important parts of your competitive event. In every case, you're trying to sell the judge that your idea, concept or plan is the best. Start with that in mind, and develop an outline for your presentation. Your ultimate goal is for the judge to choose your presentation. Consult the presentation evaluation rubric in the DECA Guide to ensure that your presentation includes information for all of the scoring criteria. You may also consider visual aids and if you'll use technology — but make sure they are relevant and meaningful to your presentation.
Brand Yourself A Winner
When creating your project and delivering your presentation, you are essentially developing a brand for yourself and your ideas. Make your presentation’s brand attractive and easy for your judge to remember by wrapping it in a strong visual package. Tie together all the elements of your project, from the charts and graphs of your written document, to your slide backgrounds, to the shirt you wear with a signature element, such as a particular color palette or pattern.
Stop, Look, Listen
A great portion of your presentation’s success isn’t dependent on what you say, but how you say it. Like any good speech, the judge may not recall every statistic, market segment or promotional idea that you deliver, but they will remember how you made them feel. That’s where confidence in your delivery comes in. Being excited, nervous and anxious about your presentation can cause your rate of speech to increase rapidly, making your words fly by in a blur. Always remember the power of pause. When practicing your presentation, incorporate pauses into your phrases. This will create a dramatic, ear-catching effect to keep your judge attentive to your presentation, plus it will emphasize important points and information.
Eye contact is another way to connect with your judge. Locking eyes shows confidence in the points you’re delivering and is another way to keep your judge engaged in your delivery.
A memorable part of your delivery that will greatly affect how your judge feels is your tone of voice. Your tone should vary depending on the subjects you’re covering in your presentation. For example, presenting a charity that your Community Giving Project supports may be most effective with a serious, earnest tone, yet in sharing your creative marketing ideas for an Integrated Marketing Campaign event, an excitable, vibrant tone would be great for expressing your creativity. No matter what tone you use, make sure you vary your expression. Nothing will lose a judge’s attention more than a flat, boring delivery that gives them no feeling about your topic.
Take Note
While relying on your innate ability to “wing it” is never recommended for competition, writing down paragraphs of perfect phrases, word-for-word, doesn’t guarantee that your presentation will turn out trophies either. Note cards are a handy tool to remember specific numerical data and exact quotes, but using them as a crutch for your memory could reduce your confident delivery, especially in form of eye contact with your judges. Instead, commit your presentation to memory as best as possible. If you thought it, developed it and wrote about it, you should be able, with a bit of practice, to present it well. Use your visual aid to help guide your talking points, with illustrations, diagrams or other images to help cue your words.
Wrap It Up
Just because you reach your last slide doesn’t mean it’s time to thank your judge, shake hands and flee the room. The time after your formal presentation is crucial for further interaction with your judge. Take this opportunity to clarify parts of your presentation, show more of your personality and impress your judge with an ability to provide thorough answers to any questions they may have. The best way to flawlessly answer these questions is to prepare for them in advance. Use your advisors and peers as practice judges for your presentation, and request that they each ask you at least three follow-up questions to your presentation. You begin to become more confident delivering answers off-the-cuff and will begin to learn the most commonly asked questions of your presentation. Should your judge not immediately ask any questions, ask for them!
To leave even more of an impact on your judge, provide them with a handout before you walk out the door, such as a brochure or outline. Use this strategy to highlight important takeaway points from your presentation, further brand yourself and your ideas, and keep a presence in front of your judge, even long after your final handshake. Make sure to have a final statement or call to action to show your judge that you’re interested in following through.
Written Event Presentation Example
Utilizing Statistics and Visuals in DECA Competition
Written Presentation Example
Mastering the Written Presentation
Present like an ICDC Winner
Content Is King
The written entry is the foundation of your competitive event. It's your outline for your project or plan, and represents your process to achieving your outcome. Choosing the right written event and the right company, event, idea, product or topic is so important, because you want to be passionate about the work you will endeavor in this process. Be thoughtful when making your decisions using some of these key considerations:
Is there enough data accessible?
Can I get information I need from the company or about the product, event or idea?
Are there real people I can engage with or enlist the help and expertise of?
Is this cutting edge or has the potential to be?
First, But Last
The executive summary is one of the most important parts of your written entry. Not only is it likely to be one of the first parts of your entry the judge reviews, it also provides an overall summary of your entry. It should be dynamic, concise and effectively highlight the main points of your written entry all while including a call to action. Often, it is best to write the executive summary last so that you can identify the most relevant components to include. Some tips for an effective executive summary include:
Start with a bang.
Identify the problem solution and opportunity.
Focus on what makes you stand out.
Sell don't just tell.
Include data and finances.
Use graphics and formatting as appropriate.
Imagine this is the only thing someone would read.
Review, Edit, Proofread
Once you have completed your written entry, review it against the written entry guidelines and written entry evaluation form to ensure you have addressed each item. If you believe items are missing or need improvement, revisit your written entry and improve those areas. You may also wish to ask consultants to read your written entry against the criteria and provide feedback. Often, that is the best way to determine if your written entry is clearly understood by someone other than you as the project creator(s). In addition, you should edit and revise your written work so that it is well-organized, professional, logical and error free.
Penalty points can cause you to lose your chance for advancement quickly! Many times, they can easily be avoided. Some of the most common reasons for penalty points include:
Not using the current year’s event guidelines.
All participants or advisor not signing the Statement of Assurances.
Leaving out sections in the body of the written entry.
Having too many pages. Double check the number of pages allowed in your written entry.
Give your entry to a trusted advisor or peer to review against the Penalty Point Checklist.