Leyna
The only reason we have this forum is because we asked nicely and the annual ball holds a lot of history on Gaia.
That's my problem right there. This event hasn't been exciting enough to really warrant any special treatment, and maybe that's why it got a lot of flack (though I tend to blame that on whiny users). If you're going to hold this, then live up to the history of this event as some monumental, site-changing thing. Do something that'll actually change the site, or the way the users look at it. As it is, it's just another big RP with the chatterbox mixed in.
I honestly don't know what you could do to change Gaia like the first event did, but that's why I'm not going to go down in Gaia history and Misao has, and also why I'm not trying to help put this on. If you're going to hold this event, do it right.