Rich came up with the idea for AOC while attending large national marketing conferences such as BlogWorld

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and South by Southwest. At these events, he rarely met iraq b2b leads anyone from Maine. Rich thought, “What if I could bring this energy back home?” He decided to host the event to spotlight cutting-edge industry information available to local marketers.

In the early days, AOC had no direct connection to Flyte. Rich simply wants to serve the Maine marketing community by bringing in top speakers.

His passion project quickly came to life. The professional relationships he built while working on the "Tequila Tour" with other conventions convinced them to attend his events. He tapped into their excitement about visiting Maine and got them involved.

In 2012, the inaugural AOC conference focused on search, social and mobile marketing and attracted attendees primarily from New England. In three years, AOC has brought 400 attendees to Portland to share marketing wisdom.

#1: Build Awareness to Generate Leads
Although initially bringing these marketing gurus to Maine to serve the Portland community and beyond, Rich eventually realized AOC could also benefit his agency as a lead generation source. Now in its ninth year, the event has become an integral part of the company's marketing strategy. "When I stand up there speaking...people in the audience, usually locals, not only see me wearing my change agent hat, but they see me wearing my Flyte New Media hat," Rich explained.

It is a challenge for local businesses to compete with local institutions. For Rich, and for many marketers, the key is to find a way to stand out—find something that makes you stand out and is difficult to copy. For example, if you come up with a great SEO or Facebook advertising plan, it won’t take long for someone to notice it and make it their own.