| This panel will analyze workplace meetings in a multimodal perspective. Meetings are activities that crucially involve various modes of communication, such as talk, text, images and bodily action. Texts that typically underlie meeting interaction include agendas, case documents and minutes. Furthermore, drawings, tables and figures are often presented to the participants in slide shows or on white boards. In addition, the participants engage in embodied action through gaze, gestures and other body movements. This multimodal form of interaction needs further study in order for us to better understand both the complementary functions of the different modes of communication and their interrelations. It will also be a contribution to understanding meetings as intrinsically multimodal events. For instance, to which degree is the talk organized by reference to the agenda or designed for inclusion in the minutes? Or how is information from slide shows and case documents evoked and referred to by means of gestures and gaze? The panel welcomes contributions that explore meeting interaction in general, and multimodal interaction in meetings more specifically. |
