How to promote a one time only event ?

Hi all. the building of our sim is almost done, just about all shops are occupied with some excellent designers in a mix of great and well known through amazing and new beginners. Just like we wanted. Looks like we are ready to have an official opening of our sim.
but where to start ?

we would really like to open in a few weeks time and we already have some great idea's for the opening event. like giving away a rl copy of the pc game Half Life 2 to the winner of a purpose built game. having a few great dj's playing music and even some "normal" contests with some good cash prizes. more details will come but this is a good start.

what we are looking for:

some good tips on how to promote an event like this. are ad-boards a good idea or a waste of money? Does advertisement in in-world magazines or blogs help and if so, which ones ? Do we best hire someone to get all this work done and if so, where do we find a capable one?

We do have a budget for the whole event, and its quite a substantial amount. We aim for the best so we want the event to reflect that too.

Any help, tips and advice appreciated, If you are the event manager/organizer that can handle this job, contact me in world through IM.

A good live concert festival running several hours will boost your traffic numbers high enough for you to show up in search within first page of most keywords. IM me in world I can send u the name of a manager that represents multiple acts

Live music is the best draw in my experience, because each musician brings with him or her a fan base, and many people will search for live music events. I've had really good luck scheduling a few live musicians mixed in with dj's over a weekend to bring rates of avis to the sim consistently up, while not crashing it. (when you get to the 60+ avis in the sim range, you start getting real lag problems.) Mix your music styles to attract different crowds, ie. blues and classical and techno, for example, and then add a dj doing rock. Theme dances to go with the music are also fun.. black and white balls, or costume, etc.

Another thing that people love is a hunt of any kind... treasure hunt, scavenger hunt or something seasonal. If your shop owners are interested, you can get them involved, offering something free to bring the hunters to their store.

Finally, if your sim has a theme of any sort, do something within theme that will capture interest... beach party for an island for example. DO post on the events calendar... it is not great, but it IS used, send a few notices to the groups you have an ownership interest in.. but don't spam or you are likely to lose members. Also, don't forget to invite your "friends"... i like to do this with a gift of some sort loaded with a notecard and landmark. Nothing big..... I'd be happy to give you some of the things i've used if you want to im me in world.