A thought I've mentioned to the roller skating people: get more figure skaters (of all levels) to come to public sessions.
At least where I skate, on wheels, you almost never see figure skaters at public sessions. Admittedly it's not quite so sparse on ice, but the process still applies.
People will get into figure skating when a) they're already motivated to come skate at a public session and b) when they see someone doing something amazing: "I want to do THAT!". Especially if that person is approachable for questions (i.e. isn't part of a group).
At my roller rink, it's usually only me doing figurey stuff, but I'm no advertisement for anything/anyone. Little Miss Freeskater turns up occasionally, maybe once every couple of weeks, but that's it. If e.g. my ex-coach, the national champ dancer, showed up and showed off, she'd have gaggles of new people turning up at her LTS classes. But no, too busy for that sort of stuff.
Particularly if you want to get the boys involved, you've got to have high level guys doing their stuff. At the moment, the boys only have hockey skaters as role models. If they actually see the hockey skaters can't skate worth a damn in comparison, maybe they'd be more inclined to go with the "more competent" option.
Getting people crossing over from roller sports to ice is another avenue (worked for me).
Also, I do actually think, that freestyle/slalom is a great "gateway drug" to get people into figure skating. e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDx8PFn6YIc (LOL, aren't they the dearest? Hey, guys, admit it, you really want to figure skate).