Collegiate DECA chapter hosts inaugural pitch competition

The spirit of competition filled the Main Campus Student Center ballrooms on Nov. 10 as East Carolina University’s Collegiate DECA chapter hosted its first Can You Beat a Business Major? pitch competition featuring a $1,000 winner’s prize in each of four categories.

Collegiate DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. The pitch event, which was open to all ECU students, saw 75 competitors choose a prompt in either marketing management, sales management, event planning or corporate finance.

Quincy McKay, a junior business management and entrepreneurship double major and an Honors College member, is ECU DECA’s president-elect. He compared the competition to a mock business meeting and explained that after receiving a prompt that describes their job in a hypothetical company, competitors had 25 minutes to develop a pitch and then seven minutes to pitch their idea one-on-one to a judge. The top five competitors from the first round in each category advanced to the final round.

“The competition is something our executive board has been working on for about a year,” McKay said. “This year is our first year doing the competition and a bit of a test year. Next year is something that we can take and make a lot bigger. Our future goal for this event is to turn it into a regional championship event between different colleges that ECU hosts.”

Winners from the competition include Bhavna Srinivasan – marketing management; Sam Dewar – sales management; Logan Holtz – event planning and Luke Hansen – corporate finance.

Although the Can You Beat a Business Major? competition was the first DECA event for Dewar, he had experience competing at similar events at ECU’s Future Business Leaders of America club. He outlined three actions he felt were critical to his success. 

“I prepared a slide format ahead of time so I could just plug in the words for my presentation,” he said. “I utilized AI (artificial intelligence) to help me brainstorm creative ideas, and I went into the presentation with an excited and confident attitude.

“The competition DECA hosted was an amazing opportunity to connect and compete with other ambitious ECU students while practicing my presentation and sales skills for the real world.”

While most of the ECU Collegiate DECA chapter consists of marketing and finance majors, the organization also oversees sales and pitch skill development. McKay feels that the latter is where Collegiate DECA shines. “I think everyone should be good at sales and pitching regardless of their major. Collegiate DECA is open to all students regardless of major and I think the skills the organization helps develop could benefit everyone,” he said.