Honestly? I agree with Xigo and several others. Small combat events or social events/non-combat events are -really- easy to run and require little to no GM help. In the smaller combat events I run here and there, I feel play on the emotions of the attendants -better- without an OOC model to run around and look pretty.
On the other hand, large combat events are... Hard at times. Mostly because for some realism and sense in the fact there's supposed to be a small battle happening around you, NPCs and phasing are required. That, and large combat events tend to be in... Exotic locations which many low-level people (who tend to be the most likely to attend) being afraid of the mobs without phasing. So at times people trying to run large combat events or large social events involving NPCs for better representation means that their hands are tied if no GMs are online to help (not saying that it's bad for GMs to have lives, and not saying it's such an inconvenience. That's not what I'm trying to get across).
So really, nothing's stopping people from running smaller events and non-combat events. It's only the large events that're difficult without GM help. My advice? Try to avoid making large events unless it's needed.
Yeah I'd just say its due to the time you came to CoTH, which has changed. I used to run mini-combat events every other time a group of 4 or more of my friends got together. When my guild was active a few restarts ago we were always doing something, seemed the population was a bit different at that moment. Also I've ran a few large events with the help of players. It's all about interest, promotion, good concept, population and presentation. Thing is, it seems a bit more difficult to do these things now than it has been in the past. Just my personal opinion. I'm sure there are others out there who are intimidated by the responsibility but a lot of it may be due to newer players unaware what they can do. Also I have some Red Rose event ideas I just need to finish Kidnapped. So challenge accepted.
What's been said just above is really right, I dare say.
Now I need 20 people for another dwarf social event. :P
As I had put in Rensin's post about Respect, I had tried to run a large event. Course it was a world shattering event in which I wont get into details as I did in said post before, but running large events has the trade off of "It can be large, but it can't effect the world." Which then makes all the effort you put behind the event wind up becoming "Oh this event was fun!" Which isn't bad, and it should have a lasting impression on the characters that were present, but outside of that, it's like it never happened. And some people can find disheartening. I wont go off on a large post about it all, but large events can involve a large number of people, but rarely effect the world. The Argents event did, but it was one of those cases where Cata the Argents had Heartglen and there was no story on how they got it. If we can start doing more events like that, maybe everyone would, but again, you can't change the world unless it was how the world would end up in Cata.
I wouldn't say a large event is how much it changes the world, but how much rp it made. I think what Ormica was hinting was a multi-day event.
I tried one before and had a good number of sign ups and maybe 10 people on the first night. Then the server was down for half a week or so. Afterward no one came to the event at all, even though it was within the planned signup bracket and we extended the dates. Sometimes even GMs will run something that no one will show up to. For awhile Rigley and I struggled to get attendance for Khaz Modan even though that event featured aerial combat (yes, it gave the players a GM flight command). It's not just the people running the event, but I think sometimes there's just player pickiness for the attendees.
Damn right when I joined I remembered seeing a Battlefield Khaz Modan thing up on the recent posts board.. >:c
Players can definitely run their own events, even large events. People are relying on the image and not using their imagination, and that's often why placing NPCs into an event is sought after by players. However, I think the presence of an NPC is important because it does give something for the player to fall back on in terms of character interaction and if a GM hops on one, then that's even better. Really, though, the only thing a player can't do with imagination is summoning players to a location that is far away, or clearing an area that is so thick with mobs that it would be difficult to RP even with level 80s around. I think players should be able to run their own events, but they should also remember that GMs are there to help with things. That's why they're not only roleplayers but GMs, because they're here to help us.