RE: #1 The Steemit Art and Fiction Competition. Getting professionals on board.
I'm just seeing this @nikflossus and I love the idea of having a prestigious award. In fact, I think the closest I've personally felt about being honored in a pretty impressive way was when my art was displayed at SteemFest.
I've put my CollaborNation initiative on the side until December or January, but the idea is to give trusted curators and content creators the posting key to launch collaborative efforts. The initial dream is to award however many active collaborators the account can afford, a ticket to future Steemfests through all-inclusive, random drawing, which means whales qualify just as much as the minnows do as long as they've participated in collaborative efforts. Anyway - it's a pipe dream right now. I've got to survive November and WriMo before I can wrap my brain around something that big and time consuming.