Although my original intention was to lock myself in the Social Media Team’s Command Suite and work all night because my chapter had to leave for Seaport Village without me, that plan changed when my teammate Ross Snyder encouraged me to come to Seaport Village with his chapter. He told me not too work too hard and to have some fun, because this IS a DECA conference after all. We work hard and play hard!

I hopped on the bus with Pinnacle High School DECA from Arizona. I had no idea who they were, excluding Ross, so I can’t deny that I felt a bit of out place. However, that exclusion barrier was broken when their advisor, Mrs. Shea, introduced me to her students as the “friend from Nevada.” I was truly touched that she 1) introduced me,  2) introduced me as a friend, and above all 3) all of Pinnacle DECA waved hi and gave me a warm welcome.

A lot of interesting things happened on the bus: the Pinnacle DECA boys sang “My Girl”, Ross and I kept tweeting like maniacs, and we passed the carrier President Obama was on!

The restaurant we ate at was a place called Buster’s Beach House. I ordered chicken fingers and stared at Ross’s fries until I got the nerve to tweet “Staring at @RossSnyder’s fries…” After we were done, the waiter–who has worked at Buster’s Beach House for about 17 years–said: “I have never had a group of more polite, well-behaved teenagers at this restaurant.”

Go DECA.

Enough said.

I eventually found my the rest of my chapter, but once that happened, a series of unfortunate events occurred. It started raining, the trolley we were waiting for took a good 40 minutes to arrive, and the transfer trolley we got on afterward stood still for another 40 minutes.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, my chapter actually recruited a random man on the trolley to join DECA! Marketing skills FTW? He told us he was 25, washes cars for a living, and wants to turn his life around.

We told him DECA can do that for him.

Although there were some negative aspects of my WRLC Side Adventures, it was on overall memorable experience.

As a student who has aspirations to pursue a career in the Public Relations field, the WRLC Marketing and Public Relations Panel was truly insightful. It’s at conferences like WRLC that I realize the extent of what DECA has to offer its members.

The panel featured Accenture Communication Consultant Jonathan Block, La Jolla Playhouse Communications Specialist Deanna Chew, Rescue Social Change Group President Jeffrey Jordan, and the San Diego Padres’ Director of Marketing Nicole Smith. At the end of the panel discussion, the audience was allowed to ask the panelists questions. One of the big questions was, “How do I land an internship right after college?”

Jeffrey Jordan said not to be too concerned about finding an internship directly after college because most professional companies look for college students that they can “groom” and “potentially hire when they graduate.” Instead, he suggests that students redirect their focus to looking for volunteer opportunities right after high school.

“You might get better experience through volunteer opportunities: political ones, even volunteering for non-profits or organizations where you might have a chance to do more than they would hire you to do because you’re there for free,” said Jordan. “And you can really prove yourself and end up doing a lot of fun stuff.”

Nicole Smith took a different angle on internships.

“Internships are huge, really important, but I would broaden the category,” Smith emphasized. She says it’s not just about interning in your field, but doing the jobs that you can do now such as “working customer service at a store” or “being a waitress or waiter.” Why? Because, despite the fact that these are entry-level positions, you can learn essential skills including customer service, how to deal with the public, and how to communicate effectively. In fact, Smith said that when she looks to hire people at the San Diego Padres, she looks for people with those very basic skills.

“Don’t underestimate the value of the experiences that you can achieve right now and how those little experiences can help you build and grow into bigger ones,” concluded Smith.

Hey DECA members,

The final Social Media Intern Challenge was to create a 30-second video on WRLC. Check out my “WRLC Pop-Up Ad” for 30 awesome things about WRLC in 30 seconds!

WRLC Pop-Up Ad

Be sure to share “LIKE” this video on Facebook and share it on twitter by hitting the Facebook “LIKE” button and twitter “tweet” button above! Thanks!

Western Region DECA is excited for its first ever Social Media Internship program at WRLC–The goal is to help the world GET DECA through social media channels.

The following information is about your 2011 WRLC Social Media Team. The Social Media Team is working with public relations experts who have advised communications and media for organizations ranging from The White House to large non-profits to Fortune 500 corporations. We will be learning how to really do social media by reporting all the happenings of WRLC!

We encourage all of you to check out our bios and GET CONNECTED with us on twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for updates, reports, and live coverage of the conference. If you see one of us at WRLC, don’t be afraid to say hello and share what you are learning and experiencing at WRLC. We promise we’re friendly, sociable people who don’t bite!

Victoria Cana

Want to know Victoria’s secret? Twitter, Facebook, Yammer, LinkedIn. You name it, Victoria’s got it. Victoria Cana is Nevada DECA’s social media savvy VP of Publicity and an aspiring news anchor or PR Manager. She’s passionate about public relations, journalism, and all things DECA.

Twitter: @victoriaccret

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/victoriacana

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/victoria-cana/2b/76b/ab7

Dallas Davis

Hey Western Region DECA, My name is Dallas Davis. I’m the New Mexico DECA Vice President of Membership and I look forward to the opportunities that await us at WRLC 2011. See y’all in Sunny San Diego.

Twitter: @DECADallas

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/decadallasdavis

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dallas-davis/33/87a/867

Tyler Dyer

My name is Tyler Dyer I’m a member of WA DECA and the current VP of my DECA chapter. I am really excited to network with everyone at the conference and post about WRLC!

Twitter: @thenameistyler

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tjdyer

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/tyler-dyer/41/891/75a

Kyungna Kim 

Hey! My name is Kyungna Kim. I’m currently VP of my DECA chapter, and I’m looking forward to working with you all at WRLC DECA 2011!

Twitter: kkim_jqn

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kim.kyungna

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kyungna-kim/23/a90/a34

Brittany Lucero

I have been a DECA member for 4 years now and am currently “Aspiring Higher” by communicating with and leading others as an Arizona DECA State Representative.

Twitter: @brittanynlucero

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/brittanylucero16

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brittany-lucero/23/978/2a3

Saurabh Mahajan

Saurabh Mahajan is a State President, Youth Governor, and small business owner among other things — but most importantly, he’s a friend

Twitter: @sawrubmahajan

Facebook: facebook.com/SaurabhMahajan12

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/saurabh-mahajan/2a/34/32b

Kavya Methukupally

Hey Everyone! I’m Kavya Methukupally and I’m currently the Vice President at Foothill DECA. DECA has been an amazing experience for me. I can’t wait to meet all of you at WRLC!

Twitter: @kavyametro

Facebook: Facebook.com/KavyaMetro

LinkedIn: -

Ross Snyder

Hey Everyone! My name is Ross Snyder and I am the Public Relations officer for the Pinnacle DECA Chapter in sunny Phoenix, AZ.

Twitter: @rosssnyder

Facebook: www.facebook.com/rosssnyder21

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rosssnyder21

Vincent Velez

I’m from Arizona DECA, Barry Goldwater High School. I want to be an innovative entrepreneur. I enjoy staying fit: Competitive swimming, cross training, lifting.

Twitter: @v3velez

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=669817413

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/vincent-velez/41/b37/6aa

Ling Zeng

Hey! My name is Ling. I’m currently a member of Rancho Bernardo DECA and part of the Social Media Intern Team at WRLC DECA 2011. I’m so excited to get to interact with everyone and expand my network!

Twitter:  @linglingglinggg

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1506174112

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ling-zeng/41/b17/2b2

And last but not least, we can’t forget our amazing Social Media Coach:

Jonathan Block

http://www.facebook.com/jonathanfblock

@JonathanFBlock

I help organizations communicate with strategy & clarity. I’m a consultant w/Accenture. Former Ass’t Press Sec to First Lady & political appointee at Dep’t of Justice.

—

WRLC is less than five days away! We’re looking forward to meeting all of you in San Diego next week!

-Victoria Cana

   At this year’s Western Region Leadership Conference, Western Region DECA is doing some really awesome things it has never done before. And while I can’t share all of the surprises, I can share a couple. For starters, ten social media interns–including myself–were chosen from across the West to report all of the happenings at WRLC. On behalf of the Social Media Team (yes, we’re cool and have an official team name), I would like to say that we are extremely excited to enhance DECA members’ conference experience by helping them GET CONNECTED at WRLC!

Now… You might be wondering “How do I ‘GET CONNECTED’ at WRLC? What does that even mean?” Follow these five simple steps to GET CONNECTED at WRLC:

Victoria’s 5 Simple Steps to GET CONNECTED at WRLC: 

1. “LIKE” Western Region DECA and join the WRLC 2011 group on Facebook
2. Follow @WRLC2011 and the Social Media Interns on twitter
3. Subscribe to the WRLC2011 youtube account
4. View my USTREAM starting Thursday, November 10, 2011 for live coverage of WRLC
5. Check these networking mediums regularly for everything from tweets to pictures to live coverage of WRLC! Look out for the Social Media Team at the conference because we might want to feature YOU in one of our news broadcasts, blog posts, Facebook posts, or tweets!

More exciting news on WRLC will be coming your way soon! Stay tuned!

-Victoria Cana