I plan to attend.
I thought that I wouldn't ever consider driving 4 hours from home to attend an event like this, but since I've been immersed in the Blinky Flashy thing for 3 seasons now and plan to take the RGB plunge in a few years, I thought: "Why not?!" It seems like a great opportunity connect faces to names/avatars, and touch/feel some of the new hardware... instead of just reading about it and seeing some photos if I'm lucky. I guess it's safe to assume that there will be some SmartString stuff there?