This is the first year University of Nevada Las Vegas Collegiate DECA attended the Utah Fall Leadership Conference (FLC) at Park City, Utah. The two day conference held November 1st and 2nd proved to be an intense two days of workshops, networking, and case study preparations. The UNLV chapter had eleven of its members in attendance and eight of them were awarded during closing session.
At the beginning of the conference students were placed into teams with other Utah Collegiate DECA members. Each team was given a business case scenario in which they must prepare by researching the company, problem they are tasked with and create a presentation for their judge, which is an executive from that company. This year’s case studies and judges were supplied by Sundance Film Festival and Zagg Inc. which challenged members to develop a marketing campaign,, target select markets, analyze e-commerce strategies, increase sales, and increase event attendance.
FLC also provided opportunities for Collegiate DECA members to develop and expand their professional skills by networking with area entrepreneurs who mentored them thru the case studies, attending a chapter officer leadership training, and listening to speakers. One of the inspirational messages given was from speaker Matt Berrett who said “The greatest thing you can do is create someone like you.” Other speakers included Scott Huckinson (ifrogz) and Bryan Brandenberg (Salt Lake Comicon).
During the conference UNLV Vice President of Membership Daniel Dinev gave a twenty minute brainstorming workshop which encouraged members to collaborate as a state on ideas they wanted to implement in the upcoming year. Stephanie Pancho, the Vice President of Public Relations also sang the national anthem during opening session.
At the end of the conference there were nine teams awarded for their case study presentations and of those teams eight UNLV Collegiate DECA members were recognized. The winners included: Daniel Dinev (Zagg 2nd Place), Xin Gan (Sundance 3rd Place), Tim Kwist (Sundance 2nd Place), Cecilia Yau (Zagg 3rd Place), Andrea Rocca-Capano (Zagg 3rd Place, Natasha Garcia (Sundance 2nd Place), Daniela Sanchez (Zagg 2nd Place), and Desiree Tolentino (Zagg 1st Place).
