Another possibility would be along the lines of the BARGE tournaments each year.

BARGE (Big-August Rec.Gambling Excursion) came about from the rec.gambling.poker usenet group. We get together once a year (guess when) for a tourney in Vegas (there are also smaller ARG tourneys).

The winner of the tourney designs the chips for the next year. Although we don't use them in play, the winner then sells the chips and the proceeds of the sale allow the winner to keep a number of sets for him/herself.

While I don't advocate all of it, I would think it would be interesting to have the Poker tourney will design the next year's set.