Dear folks 
i was the part of the teams that created Steppes Warlord, Namron Protector, Emerald Tourney, Elfsea Tourney and others. All of their first successes were based on a few points. First there was beauty. We tried to make the event as pretty as possible. Second we tried to base the event on a period theme. I have discovered that hokey events don't really don't do that well. You want a friendly event but the concept of laid back event gives people the idea that all there will be are bluejeans and T- tops and computers and who won the football game. All of us have everyday friends that we can play cards and sit around in comfortable clothes and do that. I am not going to travel to do that. I am only going to travel if I can do something special and escape from my everyday life. Thirdly we tried to do somethings special for the champions' ladies. We tried to make the event a gift that the lord could give to his lady without  duties. We made  a big thing about the Queen of Love and Beauty in the Steppes, Namron used to offer a special breakfast for the Queen. Elfsea had beautiful ceremonies for many years. Most of those events got so big that they stopped doing those things and have left a hole. Events like  the Castellan fill part of hole, but they don't really off the personal touch. I knew champion fighters that worked very hard to win Namron Protector because they wanted to sit at the head table. 
Some ideas 
Willow