Congratulations WCTC Collegiate DECA!
The Collegiate DECA International Career & Development Conference was held April 4-9, 2025 in San Francisco, California. The conference had over 1300 participants representing 200 colleges and universities across 30 states, England, and Puerto Rico.
The Wisconsin Technical Colleges and the University of Wisconsin Campuses attend this action-packed professional conference and compete in testing, prepared events, case studies, and sales institutes.
The conference kicked off with a thought-provoking presentation with Rob Lawless – Keynote Speaker He has a goal of meeting 10,000 people around the world through personal introductions and documenting the lessons learned. He provided advice for developing relationships with people, and he challenged us to be open to all possibilities. He asked: If your identity was a pie chart, what would be the breakdown of categories for how you define yourself? Rob’s met over 5,400 people from over 90 countries! His website is Robs10kFriends if you’re looking for some inspiration.
Students attended professional development sessions, A San Francisco Giants game and networked with their peers.
One of our attendees commented: “This experience has meant so much to me and I’m so happy I invested the time into Collegiate DECA, I feel so much more confident.”
The final two days were focused on competing in case studies and/or prepared events with preliminaries on the first day and the final competition the next day. Everyone spent their free time preparing for the competition, doing homework, enjoying the attractions, shops, and restaurants in the city.
Tip – Don’t hesitate to plan a trip to San Francisco, it exceeded our expectations! We walked everywhere, and the San Francisco Marriott Marquis was the perfect location for a conference and had wonderful customer service!
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