ANAHEIM, Calif. — Over the past four years, Keyana Hughes has started a convention for kids, shut it down because of the COVID-19 pandemic and sunk all her savings into restarting what she hopes can become a global brand.

Hughes’ invention, KidzCon, is now back in Southern California and making its Anaheim Convention Center debut on Friday. It will run through Sunday.

“I had to plan everything on my own this year because I wasn’t able to afford employees,” she said.

Hughes — the founder and CEO of KidzCon — has devised a different kind of mouse trap to snap up customers: a kids convention, like Comic-Con, but loaded with activities and booths that children want to interact with. Through this model, she has drawn in companies among a swath of industries including retail, toys and entertainment.

Hughes’ vision for the short term is to have a convention each quarter. She’s already held one in New York, and Southern California — her home region — is rounding into form. Two more regions are coming into focus: Dallas, where the 33-year-old currently calls home, and Miami. But she wants to take it further with ambitions of eventually pushing it to London.

So far, she has managed to draw large crowds, using digital marketing on platforms like Facebook, and amassed an email list of 60,000 people who have attended or expressed interest in KidzCon. She’s expecting at least 7,000 attendees this weekend.

Hughes kicked off her plans in 2018. They were inspired by her mother and grandmother, both event planners and educators, and she used her own experience in clothing design and sales. But when the pandemic squashed her plans for 2020 and dried up her company war chest, she took on culinary school. That’s on hold now that business is back, and her convention is fully loaded with fans and businesses again.

But restarting has been a challenge, as Hughes has funded everything out-of-pocket and organized everything without a staff.

“It’s also hard because so many of my exhibitors from the past have gone out of business,” she said.

Hughes’ plan has been to create enough value for vendors by allowing them access to her email list and promotional opportunities with 150 red-carpet VIPs. That plan, she said, is about getting the very best companies to throw into her convention not just one time, but multiple times each year for many more to come.

To be successful, Hughes reads the various markets of the businesses she wants to target, eyeing big dates or seasons in each industry. One she monitors is film.

“I usually like to study what movies are coming out just so I can see who I want to draw here,” she said.

DreamWorks Animation will be in attendance to promote projects. It’s another well-known brand that can help create value that all vendors can benefit from.

“I’m looking to have everyone in the children’s space who are the best at what they do,” Hughes said.