Christopher Young, CAE, 34, works in Reston, Virginia, as High School Division Director at DECA. As a 2018 40 Under 40 honoree, Young discusses his passion for the events industry.
Connect with Young on Twitter.What I do: I provide leadership in the areas of program development, member services and conferences for our high school division, which serves nearly 220,000 members in 3,500 chapters in 55 associations. I collaborate with our departments to align our programs and services to our organization’s brand and mission to prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs. As part of my position, I coordinate eight annual educational conferences with attendance from 150 to 18,000. I am responsible for site selection, planning, programming, promotion, communications and on-site implementation.
Greatest career accomplishment: I was an integral part of our organization’s rebrand. The rebrand positioned our organization for membership growth, increased conference participation, and rejuvenated excitement around our programs and organization. Our team earned three ASAE Gold Circle Awards in one year.
Specific improvement I’ve made: Two of our conferences were struggling. We were able to combine them into one with a new name, brand and format. We also selected three popular destinations for the conference. As a result, attendance, revenue and quality of the programming and general sessions increased.
