Getting somewhat back to the original theme of the thread...
The best way to encourage more quest activity, and possibly even more seers being brought in, is probably by showing a strong support for quest activities in the form of deatiled stories on the quest board, and ingame quest participation centered around the storyline and working as a group facing a common foe.
While I hanvn't been involved in a lot of questing of late, but back when I was it seemed there was a growing trend toward them being treated as a chance to solo hunt for loot, or a bunch of people running around trying to get the quest over with as soon as possible. Those sorts of things just have to be discouraging for the people who spend so much time putting these special events togeather.
For those who are intrested a formal writeup of the old informal questing guidelines can be found here:
http://wodman.serveftp.net/wodman.php?m=201&menu=20106