Caitlin Smith ‘16 anticipated a text from her friend, hoping to hear some good news sooner or later. A notification came in, and she opened up her phone to find a message that sent adrenaline shooting through her body; the words, “you made it!!!!” smiled back at her.

She had just qualified for DECA ICDC (International Career Development Conference). Smith began to excitedly celebrate with her family and friends, thrilled to see that she had made it past State and was moving onto Internationals.

Several weeks later, Smith flew to Nashville with her partner, Saavan Nanavati ‘17, and the other students that qualified for ICDC on April 23 to compete against 18 thousand other students from across the nation.  Her event, Marketing Communications Team Decision Making, was one of the most competitive categories in the competition; unlike other groups, whose categories involved early prep, Smith’s category did not require or allow much preparation, and was heavily judged on both the exams taken at each level and the presenter’s ability to handle pressure in the role play portion.

“At every level of competition (districts, state and international), we have to take a marketing exam that counts for some percentage of our final score,” Smith said, “The other portion is our actual role play presentation. So for both districts and state, we got several practice exam packets that I studied in preparation for the exam. However, there isn’t much you can do to prepare for the role play. For internationals, I didn’t study much for the exam, but my partner and I devised an action plan as the outline for our role play since we knew the prompt would ask us to solve a specific marketing problem that a business is facing.”

The competition was held in Music City Center convention center with thousands of students seated and ready for their event to be called. Smith herself went on stage to present her topic not only once, but twice; once for the preliminary round, and again for the finals. Knowing that both she and partner had done the most they could do to prepare, Smith was self-assured that things would turn out as she hoped.

“After our first role play event, I felt really confident because our presentation was persuasive and the solution we provided was well thought out and unique,” Smith said, “Even before the first awards ceremony, I felt confident that we were going to be finalists. As soon as we were named finalists, we immediately had to go back to the convention center for another role play. It was somewhat stressful but I tried to stay calm as we waited to go into the prep room.”

During the second round, however, Smith found that anxiety was slowly getting the best of her. The prompt they were given was outside of her comfort zone, and the lack of knowledge in the topic troubled her immensely. Her partner, though equally shaken, did his best to help the two push past their worries and reach a final, desired solution to the problem.

“As soon as I began reading our new prompt, I began to get extremely nervous because I didn’t have much background knowledge about the subject of our business problem, which involved businesses that provide health care, and I was worried we would not have enough to say during our presentation, but my awesome partner told me not to worry because he had a few ideas,” Smith said,  “As we developed the action plan, I soon gained some confidence. We outlined the steps that we, as a business, were going to take in response to the negative reputation that we had developed in the community by highlighting our goals, describing our marketing channels and methods for advertising our new 24 hour hospital hotline, and creating a timeline for achieving our goals. The judge seemed impressed with our ideas, and told us that we had already answered many of the questions he was going to ask. After that, we walked away fairly confident and satisfied with our effort.”

With no regrets left behind, Smith returned back to the hotel with a feeling of triumph. She and her partner had done their part of the task, and now, it was up to the judge to determine whether their presentation was worthy of winning.

“I was constantly thinking about the awards ceremony that was going to happen later that night, but at the same time, I was very calm,” Smith said, “I was really proud of our hard work.”

Later that evening, Smith, along with others from school, attended the awards ceremony held in Bridgestone Arena. Each finalist who placed was called onto stage to receive their medal, an honor that less than a quarter of the participants would win. Smith, like any other contestant, was anxiously awaiting the announcement of  her event. After two hours had passed, Smith was called up on stage with nine other contestants as the top ten finalists.

“They announced the top ten finalists, and we were called down to the stage,” Smith said, “Because Saavan was not there for the awards, another DECA officer [Ryan Yang] took his place and went on stage with me.”

“After they announced third and second place and our names were not called, I realized that we had not placed, but I was okay with that. In that moment I was just thrilled to be up on that stage as a finalist,” Smith said, “Then they announced, ‘First place: from Texas…’, and my heart stopped because I knew that we were the only finalists in our event from Texas. When our names were called as the first place team, I was extremely surprised and beyond excited. We stood up on the podium and they handed us a huge glass plaque. And, of course, afterwards we celebrated with the whole Westwood DECA chapter. My friends came up to me and hugged me, congratulating me and telling me how proud they were. The whole experience was quite humbling and unforgettable.”

Smith offered some words of advice:

“The most important thing about your presentation is confidence,” Smith said. “If you walk into that room and believe that you have the best ideas for your business or that you have a great presentation, then you will have a better chance of persuading the judge of this. Make sure you come up with a course of action and that your ideas are well-organized. Talk to your judge like a fellow business partner, and definitely do not talk down to them. Also, be creative in your response. You will not stand out if you have the same ideas as everyone else that has presented before you. Apply real world scenarios to your solution, and establish why you believe your plan will work. Above everything else, be passionate about what you are saying! The reason you are in DECA is because you love the excitement and risks that come in the business world, and you believe that you can contribute to the world with your knowledge and ideas! And of course, don’t forget to enjoy the experiences along the way!”