I've heard the NAMM shown is awesome. My bestfriend, and my tattoo artist, have gone the past couple year and talk about it until I start talking about SDCC. A couple other cool cons are D23 expo, Star Wars Celebration, and Stan Lees' Comikaze. D23 is Disney and they do own the Nerd monopoly (marvel and Lucas films). Went the last year they had it (2011) and had a great time. 2011 was just after the bought Marvel and they had a couple good Marvel Panels (a cup of joe and previewed a clip from the Avengers). Took my first trip to Stan Lee's Comikaze last year. It was the con's second year. They were still working out the bug. I'm sure next year will be better. Made the trip from the west to east coast for Star Wars Celebration VI. Awesome!!!! For a Star Wars nerd like me it was one of those moments in life that I will never forget. It was cool too because it was the first con I traveled to, farther than a 45 minute car drive. When I received my post con survey, they had Anaheim listed as one of the possible locations for Celebration VII. I can only hope.