The 2026 Alabama DECA Career Development Conference was held on February 19-20 at the Renaissance Hotel in Montgomery. The LAMP Chapter was one of 68 chapters from around the state which participated in this annual event. Approximately 1275 people attended the conference.
LAMP Chapter President, Arnav Aggarwal, was elected to a state officer position at the conference. He will serve as the Alabama DECA Vice-President of Leadership for 2026-2027.
The LAMP Chapter earned the title of Honor Roll Chapter in recognition of its outstanding membership achievement this year.
The LAMP Chapter received the DECA Diamond Award for consistently providing time, talent and treasure in support of DECA’s mission and vision.
The LAMP Chapter reached the Thrive Level for completing two DECA Month Chapter Campaigns, which allowed for two allocations to attend the Thrive Academy at ICDC.
The LAMP Chapter completed the 2025-2026 DECA State Action Project designed to promote the goals and mission of DECA and motivate chapters to earn recognition for their chapter’s activity.
At the conference, DECA’s industry-validated competitive events are focused on the career clusters of marketing, business management and administration, finance, and hospitality and tourism. DECA’s flagship evaluation process involves students in both a written component such as an exam or report and an interactive component with an industry professional serving as a judge.
The students listed below qualified to compete in the International Career Development Conference in Atlanta in late April.
Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research Event: Arnav Aggarwal, Mahek Patel, Dhruv Patel 1st place
Sport and Entertainment Marketing Operations Research Event: Arya Javangula, Rayhan Rahman, Brayden Lee 1st place
Business Services Operations Research: Jennifer Nguyen, Engyumi Jo, Annice Liu 3rd place
Sales Project: Siya Bhagat, Simone Allegro 2nd place
Financial Literacy Project: Pratha Patel, Anya Aggarwal, Mahi Patel 1st place
Joshua Choi, William Payne, Matthew De La Cruz 1st place
Independent Business Plan: Jun Kim, Jayden Kim 2nd place
Testing Events: Principles of Business Management and Administration:
Kennedy Spivey 4th place
Integrated Marketing Campaign Events: Eric Lin, Geethika Pochana, Zoeya Habib 2nd place