*cough* BUMP!
Well not really. My wife and I discussed this idea today and came up with what might be a workable plan.
- large rectangular table, say 4' x 6'. Big enough for at least 6 people with the DM at one end. Gives plenty of room for books, dice and character sheets. And munchies of course. I'd like to drill out cup holders to prevent spilled drinks. I'd also add a felt die-rolling area in the middle so all die rolls can be seen by the dm. (Random thought: maybe instead of a rectangular table an octoganal poker table would be better. You know one of the specialized "poker" tables, with felt troughs for chips. You could keep dice organized)
- At the DM's end...
-- bookshelves for gaming references
-- a seperate desk for notes and the laptop
-- a whiteboard easel with grid and magnetized creature counters for mapping
- laptop has...
-- mp3's for background music and combat tracks
-- pics of the monsters, much better than fumbling a description
-- Ideally I'd hook it into a big screen TV as a second monitor and use some app to do the mapping on that. But we don't have the $$$ for that. Sigh.
For combat on the whiteboard easel we came up with an odd idea that might actually work. First off, the reason we thought an easel would be better is cause drawing maps on a battle mat on a big table gets awkward. With an easel right next to the DM drawing is easy. But how do the players move their counters you ask? Enter our odd idea- The Initiative Laser Pointer! Seriously, a decent laser pointer that can shot an arrow instead of just a dot. The players stay in their seats and pass the pointer to whoever's initiative turn it is. They use it to point out on the easel where their character moves, using the arrow to clarify the facing. We think it could work, and it could organize combat. If you don't have the pointer its not your turn so keep quiet. What do you think?
We're also leaning towards starting a group snack fund. I'm not sure I like the idea of fines to keep it stocked though. Besides physical punishment for bad puns and out of game references are so much more fullfilling.

(A "Yo-yo Koosh of Smiting" to the head does wonders) We'll probably get a mini fridge too.
Anyway. See I told you it wasn't a shameless bump. Please keep the ideas coming. And thanks to those who have already contributed.