New for the 2025-26 school year, six competitive events will replace the previously required 10-page written paper with a 20-slide pitch deck. Below are a number of FAQs on these changes to help answer any questions you have.
The goal of this change is to help align the competitive event requirements with industry standards and continue to prepare members for real-world scenarios.
1. Which competitive events are moving toward pitch decks?
- Innovation Plan
- Start Up Business Plan
- Integrated Marketing Campaign-Event
- Integrated Marketing Campaign-Product
- Integrated Marketing Campaign-Service
- Stock Market Game
2. Why the move to pitch decks?
The intent of these competitive events has always been to make a pitch. For example, the intent of the Innovation Plan is for a student to pitch a concept and get a “green light” for an investor if they think it is viable. Theoretically, the student would then continue to build the business plan. From an agency perspective, the Integrated Marketing Campaign is essentially pitching the campaign concept, complete with strategy and creative, to a potential client.
The industry solution for these scenarios is a pitch deck. “Pitch decks are concise presentations that help investors and clients understand more about your business, including products, services, goals, and strategies,” according to Mailchimp.
3. What should be included in the pitch deck?
The guidelines in the DECA Guide for each competitive event include a section called “Pitch Deck Guidelines.” This content must be included in the pitch deck. Similarly to written entries, links, graphics, photos and videos may be embedded, but keep in mind that they will be converted to a PDF when uploaded. Students should not expect judges to navigate beyond the pitch deck.
4. Are there formatting requirements for the pitch decks?
The slides must be in a 16:9 aspect ratio and 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels tall. Creative and compelling visuals that strategically convey the most important content are highly encouraged. Otherwise, there are no requirements for font size or spacing, but students are encouraged to apply design principles and best practices for slide decks.
5. Will pitch decks be required to be uploaded prior to ICDC?
Yes, during the ICDC-Qualifying Prepared Entry Submissions window (March 25-April 8, 2026), a PDF version of the pitch deck must be uploaded, similar to uploading the 20-page written entries. The completed Prepared Event Statement of Assurances and Academic Integrity must uploaded as a separate file at the same time.
At ICDC, the judge will have the opportunity to view the pitch decks in the morning when they report to volunteer and before seeing student presentations. They will have access to the pitch deck throughout their entire shift. Following each student presentation, the judge will complete the Presentation Evaluation Form based on the presentation and pitch deck. There is not a separate rubric for the pitch deck itself.
7. Will pitch decks be penalty pointed?
Yes, the “Pitch Deck” portion of the Penalty Point checklist on page 60 of the DECA Guide will be used.
8. Do members have to use the pitch deck that is uploaded when presenting?
Members may use any of the visual aids that meet the criteria under Presentation Guidelines for the event when presenting to the judge.
9. For 20-page written events, the title page and table of contents did not count toward the total pages. Is this true with the pitch decks?
The pitch decks must be a total of 20 slides. This includes the cover slide, title slide, table of contents, all components of the body and appendix. With the exception of the cover slide (because it’s the first slide), all slides must be numbered in sequential order to 20.
10. What resources will be available?
DECA is partnering with a cross-functional team at Adobe to develop an educator and student resource guide for using the Integrated Marketing Campaign events in the classroom. The projected release date is this fall.
Additional Links
DECA will continue to add to this FAQ as needed.
