I'm disappointed, too, I think people take me too seriously Or perhaps everybody is half as insane as myself...
I'm glad you're bringing me back to my senses
The first question is the way simplest to answer: 1 new region for US$1000, 3 months of rent (one building, two for visitors) — that's another US$885, if my maths don't fail me, and if LL hasn't changed their pricing lately. Plus costs for changing the region's name after the event. Eventually, there would be building costs, and I imagine that we should also advertise — not necessarily on LL's login screen, which is insanely expensive, but on popular websites and forums like SL Universe.
The second question is tougher to answer. But — as you can see — 'Democracy Fair' doesn't require the same amount of planning as regular regions, because I propose it to be more conceptual. But you're right! It requires to be rebuilt a second time!
That's what I like on JD's proposal. Let it be a "multiple island" region, with bridges to the mainland. So there is the need for some nice landscaping. That's the base of the work, and which will persist once 'Democracy Fair' is over.
'Democracy Fair' has a few 'mandatory' buildings, as said — things like the central area, stage, meeting places (could be open air) for RA, SC, museum/exhibit areas, gardens. And there will be roads and signs to do as well. This really requires a team of builders to do, and some sort of plan to have a certain consistency. But — and this is the important part — we're not talking about strict covenants for a historical replica here, but modern (or post-modern) design, most of which wide open (no need for roofs!). Think minimalist and elegant.
The rest of the areas are, as I suggested, 'Citizen's Booths'. It means that everybody is allowed to build whatever they wish — no restrictions, except for prim limits, and the usual 'common sense' rules in the Covenant (e.g. no spinning cubes spewing particles all over the place). Citizens may join parcels together and do collaborative builds (using more prims that way). Someone like me who is worthless as building could simply join their plot to someone else to build. The whole point would be to have fun building inside a giant sandbox! The only 'requirement' would be that the building/booth is somehow evocative of our anniversary, but the details are left for citizens to decide by themselves.
Once the Democracy Fair is over... the Citizen's Booths are removed... and so are the temporary meeting places, the exhibit areas, the arena, the central area. The landscaping, the roads and the bridges might remain in place. Now would be the time to re-parcel the region according to a 'standard' plan and just start selling plots
So, yes, this means building things twice, but for Democracy Fair, it would be way simpler.
It's also true that once the Fair is over, we would be another month with it closed in order to rebuild and reparcel it. But — here is the thing — I suggested that the contest for doing the plan for that region would happen during Democracy Fair itself.
Now, as for your other arguments. "We already have five beautiful sims to host these activities". Indeed we do, and spreading things around the sims would also be a way for visitors to get a feeling of the different themes, and, as such, persuade them easier to join our community. But, alas, we will have to fight lag as well, and it won't be so easier, for potential visitors (who might not be in our groups!), to figure out where to go. A new 'central' region (central to the event, that is), has the huge advantage that people only need to type 'Democracy Fair' on the map and teleport there to attend events. They could be on a group, sure, or signing up to one of these nifty boxes that spam people when an event is due, and have a huge screen listing all the events that are going to happen during those two months. Way simpler to manage! And one thing doesn't exclude the other — Oktoberfest, for example, would probably be better served 'in-theme' and that means the Neufreistadt Marktplatz. In a sense, this would be the same model that Linden Lab does for their own WInter Holidays planning: a central area for the main events (sponsored by them) and lots of peripheral events, held by residents, who thus contribute for the overall celebrations.
Now, financials (besides the already-mentioned costs for the region): I agree that this is expensive! I'm still willing to say that we would not need to 'burn our expenses' — as we have plenty, and crowdfunding is still a solution! — but definitely invest into a promotional event that, for a change, gets thousands of visitors (over a period of two months, of course). This is 'advertising' at a scale we never done before. Will we recoup the costs? Probably not! I'm quite aware of that! But we won't celebrate a '10th anniversary' a second time; this is the only time we can do it, and I say, let's do it in a grand style!
(Also, that actually works as an argument: most people in SL who live in communities are tired of listening to their landowners complaining how hard it is to make money from rentals and such; many might have moved several times in the past few years, as communities collapse and die. We, by contrast, are so rich with our very successful management model that we can waste money just to have fun and not worry about the actual return of investment — well, at least, once every ten years!)
Personally, I will agree that the fundamental problem is, indeed, having enough volunteers to build a region twice (even if, as said, most of the landscaping and much of the supporting infrastructure might remain). Well, there is a way out of that. Why should they be volunteers? I mean, we can afford to pay them. And by paying I mean something substantial, not L$1000 Because I've already established my madness, I'd be more than fine to allocate, say, L$250k just for paying for people to build things, and an hourly fee (to be established) for being in-world at certain times (before announced events start, for instance, and during the duration of the event) to guide visitors. Why not? Why does everything need to be 'volunteer' work? I mean, we even have a long tradition of paying people to work and build awesome things in the CDS — many structures built by the original Guild were, in fact, paid for.
My whole point is that we can do it at least once — forget financials for a while, do something in a grand style, be bold, and show off what we can do
Obviously, whatever we might plan, I completely agree that finishing LA has a much higher priority, and, as such, I would never dream of endangering the completion of LA with another new and crazy project. So, I advise no 'serious' consideration of any further planning before LA is finished. In the mean time, not to waste any further time, and since our discussions are always long-winded and take eternities, I think it's still worth discussing what we have in mind to make a truly unique celebration of our 10th anniversary — and start doing it now, before it's too late, and all we're able to do is to hang a big '10' over the Marktplatz...