According to Gus Mastrapa at Wired's Game | Life blog, passes for Penny Arcade Expo (or PAX), the gaming con for the rest of us, are available as of right now on PAX's site. PAX East will take place from March 26th - 28th, and $45 will get you a three-day pass. This will PAX's east-coast debut. No location is confirmed, but Hynes Convention Center seems like a reasonable guess. I've never been to one of these things, so I can't offer much by way of description, so I will defer to Mastrapa:
Penny Arcade Expo is a consumer-oriented gaming convention that delivers three days of nerdy bliss. LAN, handheld, console, table-top and role-play gamers are all well served with dedicated gaming rooms, flush rental libraries and late night lounges for meeting folks to play and socialize with.
Previous PAX events have featured nightly concerts starring geeky musicians like MC Frontalot, The Minibosses and Jonathan Coulton. The PAX show floor re-creates the vibe of E3, giving attendees the chance to score hands-on time with dozens of pre-release games. Game publishers offer exclusive merchandise for sale. Specialty retailers offer collections of rare, weird and retro games, collectibles and attire.
A wide array of panels and key notes give attendees intimate access to game designers or help empower them to make their own games. And, of course, Penny Arcade’s ringleaders Gabe and Tycho take center stage — drawing a comic live before an audience and supervising the grueling Omegathon gaming competition.
More details in the coming weeks and months about this, so stay tuned.

More:
http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/laserorgy/archive/2009/10/20/get-your-pax-east-passes-now.aspx?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitterAlso:
What is PAX East?
PAX East is a three-day game festival for tabletop, videogame, and PC gamers. We call it a festival because in addition to dedicated tournaments and freeplay areas we've got nerdcore concerts, panel discussions, and an exhibitor hall filled with booths displaying the latest from top game publishers and developers. Even with all this amazing content the best part of PAX East is hanging out with other people who know their shit when it comes to games.
More:
http://www.paxsite.com/paxeast/faqs.php