Contributed by Aryani Pallerla, Green Hope DECA
With many district and association-level conferences coming soon, many DECA members are beginning to work on their written event projects.
Although written events are long and hard to prepare for, the hard work definitely pays off in the end!
Here are some tips to ace your written event in anticipation of #DECAICDC:
1. Be Creative
Creativity is a huge factor in developing a winning written event. In order to impress the judges, you must think outside of the box, and come up with an idea that stands out. This is usually one of the more challenging steps because there’s a swath of different scenarios and ideas that you can choose from.
Try to take into consideration the market for your idea. Are there a lot of people this would affect? Or would this be something that wouldn’t affect many people? You must think on a large scale.
Also, try to think about if this is feasible in the real world. Is this something that could happen? Be creative but be realistic.
2. Plan Out Your Script
When doing written events, it’s a good idea to have a general idea of what you’re going to say beforehand. Since you are allowed to plan out your idea and presentation beforehand, take advantage of it! Make sure you and your partner(s) know who is going to be saying what. This may seem like a small detail, but when you’re in front of the judge and going through pre-presentation jitters, you’ll be thankful that you planned it out.
You can go all out and write up a script and memorize it, or you can just assign certain sections to each team member to discuss and elaborate on. Either way, you should never walk into the presentation room with no idea of what to say.
3. Think About the Real World
Try your best to apply your written event to the real world. Think about how this scenario would happen if you were a business professional presenting this idea. That’s what you’re role-playing as, so that’s how you should think when planning your presentation.
If you’re advertising a store’s athletic clothing line, think about what that store currently sells. Think about the store’s reputation or how much profit they currently make off of athletic clothes. Think about what tools you can use to advertise this: can you use social media to advertise to athletes, or would you be better off advertising on TV or radio channels?
These are the things that will set you apart from other written event contestants, and this will impress the judges.
With these tips in mind, you’ll be on the stage at #DECAICDC in no time!
