What advice would you give to FBLA competitors for future years?

Please do not procrastinate and really focus on the prejudged part of the portion of your report, because that is a prerequisite if you want to compete at states. Also, make sure to thoroughly read the rubric so you hit every single requirement on the rubric, especially the part about providing a recommendation and plan. As for your recommendation, try to come up with a creative acronym to make it memorable. For us, we thought of CHIP, as the topic was about microchips. Although notes are technically allowed, every single team memorizes their presentation, so make sure to have your presentation very well memorized by the conference. Also it is important to get plenty of sleep before the night of the competition, eat breakfast, and act confident when you are presenting. Finally, if you do make a mistake it is okay (part of the learning), just don't act surprised and keep going!