The events forum is way out of focus and will need attention after this current phase of changes are made and have settled down.
But even if an event has been posted for a year, I'm not sure that's long enough for it to take root. In my mind if the promoter or an enthusiastic representative hasn't been invited on board and given the opportunity to advertise, do publicity, campaign for attention, take over and run the forum - I'm not sure that year is a measure of anything. The small events can't become big events if no one knows to go to them.
Plus similar to what I think Mission is saying, once events actually get joined up with the calendar and become active-clickable calendar events, they'll be much easier to navigate.
However, I do think we've figured out over the last year that we need to rotate the events, to keep the most relevant ones at the top of the pile.