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Rochester to host annual DECA competition

Visit Rochester will welcome 2,300 high school students this week for the annual DECA State Career Conference.

visit-rochester-logoThe best and brightest high school students from across the state will visit the region as part of the Distributive Education Clubs of America’s annual conference at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center from March 6 through 8. It is the 22nd consecutive year that Rochester has hosted DECA’s event.

The State Career Conference (SCC) is the largest New York DECA event of the year. Members from across the state gather each year for competitions, workshops, state officer campaigns and networking. The best competitors at SCC qualify to attend the International Career Development Conference.

More than 100 business leaders will volunteer their time at DECA as business competition judges.

“It is a great honor to welcome New York DECA to Rochester,” said Kris Hughes, director of sales for the Riverside Convention Center. “The willingness of Rochester’s business community to volunteer their time and energy in working with student attendees, coupled with DECA’s goals of exposing the succeeding generation to the professional world makes Rochester an ideal destination for DECA attendees to convene. The State Career Conference will prepare student attendees for the next step in their academic career, and will help develop community minded leaders.”

DECA is a student organization whose program of leadership and personal development is designed specifically for high school students interested in marketing, management or entrepreneurship. Over the course of the conference, students will compete in a variety of events designed to test their skills in fields ranging from financing to hospitality to advertising and others.

Open to all students enrolled in a state-approved career-technical marketing education program, DECA provides opportunities for students to develop skills in the areas of vocational understanding, leadership development, civic consciousness and social intelligence.

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Belly up to a new whiskey festival in September

Selling out their Buffalo event in January wasn’t enough for the Tommyrotter Distillery and StepOutBuffalo.com.

The distillery and event promoter from the Queen City are bringing their act on the road to Rochester, with the Rochester Whiskey Riot Festival Sept. 15. The festival will allow participants to sample up to 80 different whiskeys, made by Tommyrotter and other distilleries from other parts of the country and abroad.

Promoters say “Whiskey Riot celebrates and encourages education on the storied history, production, and experience of whiskey and all its varieties.” Seminars at the event will be led by Kentucky’s Heaven Hill Distillery and Scotland’s The Macallan.

The partners are also offering another Whiskey Riot in Buffalo, scheduled for Sept. 29 at the Adam’s Mark Hotel. They’ll be in Albany Oct. 28 at the Desmond Hotel.

The Rochester event will be held at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center, 4 to 7 p.m., Sept. 15. Tickets cost $45 and include a souvenir tasting glass, tastings, access to seminars and three pop-up bars serving whiskey cocktails. The bars will be sponsored by Tommyrotter Distillery, Highland Park Distillery from the Scottish Island of Orkney, and Four Roses Bourbon from Kentucky. The event will include a disc jockey, vendors and food for purchase.

[email protected]/(585) 363-7275