To assist the exploration of the possibilities associated with configuration, it is appropriate to note different kinds of configuration in use in other domains in the hope that they may offer clues to its significance in meetings. Special significance may be attached to location and orientation. Fortress or castle, with elements appropriately arranged to ensure successive lines of defence in order to maximize the protection of what is most valued. Importance is attached to the strategic location and the relationship to the surrounding terrain. Battle plan, whereby opposing generals locate the different functional units of their respective forces both in relation to one another and to the opposing force, in order to favour respective strategies.
Special attention is given to terrain, logistics and the training and morale of participants.
Ritual, dramatic or dance movements, in which participants continually modify their relationship to each other, possibly to bring about a sequence of changes in the overall pattern they constitute. Some forms are completely pre-determined, others are partially or completely improvised. In some forms all participate all the time, in others they may be absent for the part of the sequence in which their role is most stressed, or when it is stressed by their absence. The orientation of the configuration as a whole is vital to its operation, as in the case of the microwave receiver or the radio-telescope. It is only through the use of magnetic forces that the plasma may be kept from destroying any material container.