Sounds awesome, and I wish I could come. But unless I win the lottery like real soon this is simply beyond my financial abilities - a couple of thousand bucks for a few days of cookie fun.
As a substitute I have made up my mind to go to Cake World in Hamburg, Germany this Saturday. It is just around the corner and they also have a cookie section there.
Maybe next year I'll even have the courage to enter the competion there. But maybe not 
I have been to Cake World Hamburg yesterday, and it was a bit of a disapointment. Not that I expected a lot of cookies there, but it was unspectacular by all means. Some gorgeous cakes for the challenges, of course. But the vendors didn't have anything new & interesting. I searched for some uncommon cookie cutters and special colors, and did find neither... 
In case someone is interested, I have attached pictures of the 5 cookie entries for the challenge (don't know the artists names, as they were nowhere on display, sorry). Most of them are fondant covered and painted, very little icing used. So that is what northern Germany comes up with in a cookie contest. Now I wish even more I could come to CookieCon *sigh*
Oh, but some of those entries are very nice! You should give Germany more credit! 