I really like the idea of a single reveal date. I know some people hate it, but I honestly prefer that if there's more than two or three weeks worth of posting. In my experience, by the end, commenting drops way WAY down, and the fics that get posted last inevitably get shafted on readers.

I think the idea of a prompt pick-up mini-fest is excellent. I know I've seen a lot of people grumbling in the past that they don't want to write for exchanges because they feel like it's expected that they write a multi-chapter million word epic and if they don't, their contributions get ignored. Putting a mini-fest up for people who aren't epic writers (and making a point to encourage and support short-fic writers for the main fest) would be very welcoming.

Don't forget art, too. There's never been much art presented for the exchange in the past, which I've always felt is a shame. We can't host it on AO3/DW yet, but there are options for that. I definitely feel that artists of all sorts should be encouraged to participate as well - Tumblr has some AMAZING graphic artists (as I'm sure you've seen following my Dramione blog XD ), and there are some excellent people on dA who do more traditional forms of art. Reaching out to them should be very important, as well.