However, it sounds like this thread is really trying
to discover the interest level in the contest in
general, which, from the level of activity on these
boards, doesn't seem that high.
Of course, potential participants have great
incentive to wait to post their entries until just
before the deadline, because of the danger of
copying/forking.
Actually, since submitting your final entry doesn't involve the forum at all (you submit via an FTP server), most participants have no incentive to post their idea to this forum until AFTER the deadline, if at all.
I think you've answered your own question as to why activity on these boards is not very high -- not surprisingly, the only people posting ideas here are people who do NOT plan to enter the competition, and the only posts by competitors have been with questions about technical issues or rules, not details of their ideas.
The purpose of this thread is what it said it was; to see whether it's worth our time to set up the "office hours". We already know how high the general interest in the competition is based on other information.
I'll warn you that if your impression is that interest is low and winning will be easy due to a small number of entries, you are in for disappointment. 
What, Kim, you mean you don't do all this work at
home in your spare time? \*wink, wink*
Work, what work? What contest ?
Unfortunately though it's true. Any press coverage of the event would likely include the fact that we're a core customer.
Anyway, I don't have any brilliant ideas for it anyway. Every idea I've come up with requires commercial products.