Flight New Media

Rich Brooks started Flight New Media in 1997 not with grand ambitions, but out of practical necessity. Operating from his living room, he began building websites for local clients. The agency's early growth wasn't driven by aggressive marketing—it was organic. One of his earliest clients actually gave him an ultimatum: hire people or lose the business. That single moment forced him to professionalize the operation and build a team.

Over the next 15 years, Flight New Media evolved from a web design shop into a full-service digital marketing agency. Brooks expanded the service offerings to include search engine optimization, social media marketing, webinar support, and other digitally-delivered services. The agency maintained a tight focus on helping small businesses and nonprofits succeed online—a positioning that would define both the agency and his conference later.

In 2009, Rich and some friends began hosting free social media presentations that consistently sold out. Frustrated that organizers were charging at the door while speakers received nothing, they decided to launch their own event, "Social Media FTW." It ran for three years before the founders amicably parted ways. The experience taught Brooks the power of live events for thought leadership and community building.

The real inflection point came in 2012 when Rich decided to launch Agents of Change, a digital marketing conference. Unlike his first conference, this one would be his own and would expand to cover search, mobile, and social marketing—areas he felt weren't getting enough attention. The conference became a testing ground for marketing ideas he could apply to Flight New Media and a platform to establish himself as a nationally recognized expert.

What makes Rich's approach to conferencing remarkable is how deliberately profitable he's engineered it. By 2012, he had refined the unit economics: with a $200 ticket price for 375-400 attendees, he targets roughly $75 in costs per person (food at ~$29, venue overhead ~$5, marketing ~$10, and speaker costs ~$30). This structure generates approximately $40,000 in direct profit annually. He's also scaled to offer digital passes (100-300 annually at likely higher price points), adding another revenue stream.

Key cost-control tactics include: partnering with the University of Southern Maine for affordable theater space ($2,000 for the full day versus $20,000-$25,000 for commercial venues); securing sponsors for food and beverages (pizza sponsor provided $500 worth of pizza; beer sponsor eliminated that cost entirely); and keeping the event to a half-day format initially to avoid expensive meal requirements.

Rich doesn't view the conference purely as a profit center. It serves multiple strategic purposes: it acts as a test lab for marketing ideas he applies to Flight New Media, it generates 1-2 new client engagements annually worth $10,000-$30,000 each, and it amplifies his personal brand and the agency's visibility. This multi-dimensional ROI—direct profit plus lead generation plus brand building—makes the conference a core business driver despite the operational complexity.