Memphis RPG Day (?)

So after having read this blog post, talking about RPG games and market appeal and such, as well as this forum thread, which links to this msnbc article is leaves me musing about the appeal of Role Playing Games to the public audience. As someone who spends a large percentage of their time and attention on games, I'm interested in the future of RPGs, and in introducing new players to RPGs.

Some of the talk on the D&D 4e forums has been related to whether D&D4 targets brand new players, unfamiliar with D&D, or old school players. That argument aside, I can glean one gem from it. We need to target new players. I'm not going to sit here and claim that D&D is some lost art or magic, about to die, if only we could get people to care. However, as much as I love Role Playing Games, I am eager to see new players get involved, as much for selfish reasons (I can play RPGs *with* them!!), as for longevity and posterity.

I'm being long winded and rambly, but here's where I'm headed:

I'd love to get some like minded folks together and try to do a (Local) RPG day. Memphis in this case, of course. I'm interested in getting all of my fellow 8-5 nerd couples crowd, and all of the other demographics out there that I think would love some D&D or Dogs in the Vineyard or Shadowrun or Modern d20 or whatever - I'd love to get them together and introduce them to Role Playing Games.

It bothers me that Memphis seems to have no gaming community whatsoever.

So here's what I'm kicking around in my head:

Picking a date, asking some fellow gamer nerds if they'll prep something and be prepared to run, and then doing a Memphis RPG Day somewhere. I'm not sure how I'd entice people who are not necessarily gamers to come, or perhaps even weed out the weird/bad/scary elements, but I'm still thinking about it. I'd love to introduce new people to the hobby. Having read that blog post that I linked at the beginning of this, I couldn't help but think about all of the small social groups, unexposed to Role Playing Games, who might love it, but are unlikely to pick up 600 pages of rules and say, "Hey, lets give this a shot!". Its going to take people running games that are accessible to people who may not consider themselves as "gaming nerds".