I would love to attend an event like this someday! I was able to attend something similar, where you paid an admission fee to display your work and even work on models with other people displaying/working on their own pieces. It was really cool to have people admiring your work. I was still a complete modeler noob at the time with 0 completed models (but two in progress), but I still had a good time attending it. I would love to submit my work for something like this one day!
Yeah I highly recommend going to one of these model shows. The people, vendors and being able to display your own models was a great fun. Next year I will bring my own models and display them. Maybe even for the competition scene. :-)