Talk Title: Exploring immersive meetings in the Metaverse: A conceptual model and first empirical insights


Speaker: Marvin Grabowski, PhD Candidate at University of Hamburg, Germany


Location: HBK 2105 and Zoom


Abstract: New technological developments open up new possibilities for the way teams can work together virtually. In particular, immersive extended reality (XR) meetings enable groups to represent, view, and interact with each other in a shared three-dimensional (3D) space. XR meetings take place in the highly publicized “metaverse”, defined as a multi-user interaction space that merges the virtual world with the real world (e.g., Dwivedi et al., 2022). By wearing a headset that blocks off perception from their current physical environment, group members become immersed into a shared virtual environment (i.e., the metaverse). Users generate realistic embodied avatars that are qualitatively different from two-dimensional (2D) video interactions, such as Zoom (e.g., Hennig-Thurau et al., 2023). We developed a conceptual framework of 3D immersive XR group meetings that integrates technological design characteristics, subjective attendee experiences, mediating mechanisms, and meeting outcomes. I am going to present our preliminary findings on meeting outcomes and individual XR experiences (i.e., group interaction characteristics, avatar perception, simulator sickness, and task load). Following the talk, you are cordially invited to discuss about opportunities and challenges of the metaverse as a platform for enabling immersive learning scenarios and conducting workplace meetings in the future.

Bio: My research as a current PhD Candidate at University of Hamburg, Germany, highlights the future of workplace meetings. Between the interface of Industrial & Organizational Psychology and Human Computer Interaction, the immersive experience through VR glasses opens up new interdisciplinary perspectives. In particular, I am interested in underlying mechanisms of fruitful interactions in immersive meetings in the metaverse. Furthermore, I am interested in success factors of hybrid meetings with the goal of gaining new insights into how the new framework of New Work can be used practically Based on national and international academic stations, I am happy to build bridges between organizational needs and scientific findings. In addition, I am a speaker on career guidance and professional orientation after high-school and published the book “Early Life Crisis”.