What it was like
One day only. Which is the constraint that makes this one work, because you cannot pace yourself across a weekend, so the whole floor moves at the speed of somebody who knows exactly which table they have to reach first.
Cosplay competitions where the costume that wins is usually the one with an engineering problem solved inside it. Panels with creators who are still standing in the hallway afterward, taking the questions nobody asked them on stage. Booths where the real find is three boxes deep and priced by someone who was in a hurry. Comics, anime, gaming, and film all sharing one hall, which means the conversations cross over in ways the enormous conventions have gotten too big to allow anymore.
Pasadena Convention Center, a single day of it, badges through the event site. Send it to the friend who talks about their childhood collection the way people talk about someone they lost touch with.