Spokane Coference A Success For Deca
I thought they’d really hate Spokane. But, as host president of the Western Region Leadership Conference for DECA last month, I had plenty more things to worry about than whether the 1,800 visitors would like the weather.
Compared to sunny and warm San Diego last year, Spokane was up against stiff competition. But Mother Nature decided to dump snow at just the right time and - with people having snowball fights, ice skating and eating chili on a cold night - Spokane seemed to be the perfect city that night with so many things to do.
The conference offered plenty of opportunity, too. It brought together DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) and college DEC (Delta Epsilon Chi) members, teachers and business people from 13 states and Guam to celebrate the importance of careers in marketing, management and entrepreneurship in a world that is constantly changing.
Both DECA and DEC are organizations that high school and college students can join to learn more about marketing through conferences, community service projects and competition. This conference, “Passport to a Changing World,” had many exciting things to offer: informative seminars, tours of local businesses and social events like dances and dinners.
The conference began with excitement. Spokane got to display its hometown talent as the Ferris High School drill team and band performed. After recognizing the leaders of 13 states and Guam, keynote speaker Kevin Singleton was introduced. Through music and athleticism - juggling, mostly - he taught us the importance of always working hard to succeed.
If we fail, he said, “get back up and try again!”
The next two days we had our choice of over 50 seminars and business tours. I went to eight seminars with titles ranging from “Business Opportunities on the Internet” and “The Making of a Leader” to “Management” and “Your Body and Your Job.” I thought the latter was the best one because it dealt with sexual harassment in the work place.
Picture this: A guy and a girl talking at their lockers get into an argument and sexual comments are tossed at the girl. An office worker breaks up the argument. What action should be taken?
Chuck Hatten, a former educator who specializes in human relations training, gave the audience four choices: A) discipline the guy only; B) discipline the girl only; C) discipline the guy and the girl; D) blame the office worker for not taking care situation beforehand.
About two-thirds of the audience, including me, chose the option of disciplining the guy and the girl. We were wrong. The right answer was to discipline the guy only. It was because it was only the first offense and it happened to the girl. If it happened a second time, you would discipline both parties.
I found this seminar beneficial to me because I am a woman aiming to be in the business world. It helped me realize this is a real issue that could happen to anyone, not just Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas. It showed me the best way to handle a situation like that.
The conference was a hit, bringing all kinds of people together to learn things that were applicable to their lives.
“I learned about opening and starting your own business,” said Issac Alberty from North Central. “Just from talking to other people I learned how to better run our student store.”
The highlight for me was meeting new people and seeing new faces. In talking with people about their overall impression of the conference, the uniform answer was, “It was fun. I met a lot of new people, learned about business and loved the snow.”