Agreed, this would be good.
Ahhh, the whole "avatar versus photo" business (which is being discussed elsewhere). I personally feel the avatar should be used everywhere on the forum except for the user's profile page, so I respectfully disagree with you here. You see the user's avatar associated with posts, which is where most users spend their time on the forum. Thus, it's easier to make the association when you see the avatar elsewhere (for instance, on these maps).
That's a great idea, actually--users on my forum have meetups all the time, and there are various gaming events that would be fun to show here. Actually, tying this to the calendar would be a blast. :D
..Al