Depends on where you live. Also if you are showing or looking. I am lucky enough to live near Columbus Ohio, so I'm going to the Ohio National as my first show, as a looker. I'm hoping to meet a lot of people whose brains I can pick, and I want to get information on next year's ABA and SCNA lineups.
I'd reccomend that if you are showing, start small; if you are looking, go big.
Only 1 show ? I would have to say it is the Ohio National in Columbus. When I about 12, I played sick from school, and convinced my dad to let me go with him. I rode from Northern IL to Columbus,sitting on a chicken crate. No seatbelt laws back then. My dad and Harry Halbach sat in the front, and the rest of our van was filled with chicken cages. It took about 7 hours. The fact that we had Grand Champion of the Show, with a Grey Japanese Cockerel made the trip memorable that's for sure. . Now some 30 years later, went back last year. Didn't show anything, took my 2 daughters. The show offers an opportunity to see a vast array of breeds and varieties of chickens, duck, geese, turkeys. Not only is it a large show, but the quality of birds is always top notch. The building is the best I've ever been in for a poultry show. Going back in 6 weeks, this time taking my son, who is 7.