I know Sara Pitre-Durocher was at AnimeExpo in 2015--and that was before she became the "big thing" drawing Transformers stuff for IDW. I think her popularity was just starting to become as huge as it was then, when "Til All Are One" began publishing--I remember her booth had a few Transformers things, but not a lot, then (I got a couple Windblade and Stascream post cards, that were like traditionally done chibi-doodles). :D We'll see if I find general fans to exchange stuff (or give to and get interest in my fan-fiction) with--I plan to have my Ita bag, which is very Rodimus-themed, so THAT might get some attention. XD

The next time TFCon hits Chicago, I'll probably try to make it back to one. That's not too far to travel for me (a couple hours by car) and it would cost me less (because there wouldn't be the price of airline tickets). But I bet TFCon in LA will be a total blast for you! LA is just a really great city to look around in general--I love the Asian area of downtown LA, there are lots of cool little shops, from "dollar store" kinds of shops to big toy shops. The friend I'm going with, we've been to several anime conventions across the U.S.--we first went to Otakon together and then we went to AX in 2015 and SakuraCon in 2018, plus we went to some anime 'con that was in her home state together, I don't remember what it was called. And I've been to my local anime 'con, which is okay (but very small)--but the best thing was a panel by Sonny Strait, which was supposed to be about "Fullmetal Alchemist" at the time, but he said "my character dies a short time into the series, let's just talk about anything!". He was absolutely hilarious--and I knew of him before he became an anime voice actor, when he did art for the "ElfQuest" comic way a long time ago! XD