Competitors for DECA can attend multiple level of conferences. General information for each is listed below.
The first conference, Districts, is open to all DECA members. If the competitor achieves top 10 in their event at Districts, they will qualify for the State Career Development Conference, in which all of the state of Michigan compete, not just individual regions.
At States, participants will be divided into "flights" for each event. Participants only compete with others in their flight- for example, if there are 80 individuals who are in the Marketing Communications event, there might 16 in each flight. You compete with the 16 in your flight, not all 80 qualifiers. To qualify for the International Development Conference, you must rank 1st in your flight.
At ICDC, there is a preliminary roleplay that also operates under the flight system. If you qualify for the Top 20 in your event (Top 2 in your flight), you will do a separate roleplay among all Top 20 qualifiers. From there, awards are given to the Top 10 and Top 3 qualifiers at ICDC.