Facilitating multi-party conferences, including allocating resources needed for conference while establishing connections with participants

A system comprising:

• a network interface for sending and receiving one or more of video data and audio data between two or more endpoints;
• one or more of a video data source and an audio data source located at more than one endpoint;
• and
• a control unit for controlling one or more of the video data and the audio data between endpoints, the control unit operable to execute instructions to:
• display a graphical user interface to a user allowing the user to specify more than one participant in a conference, wherein specifying the more than one participant includes
• identifying individually one or more conference participants and
• indicating whether each of the identified one or more conference participants is a dial-in participant or a dial-out participant, and
• wherein at least one participant is remotely located;
• invoke the conference upon receiving one or more requests to connect to the conference by one or more participants, wherein connecting one or more participants to the conferences comprises receiving a dial-in from at least one conference participant or establishing a dial-out with at least one conference participant;
• allocate resources upon the conference being invoked;
• and
• connect participants to the conference.

A method comprising:

• receiving from a user input specifying more than one participant in a conference, where at least one participant is remotely located, the input being received through a graphical user interface displayed to the user and allowing the user to
• identify individually one or more conference participants,
• indicate whether each of the identified one or more conference participants is a dial-in participant or a dial-out participant, and
• indicate whether one or more of the identified one or more conference participants is a chairperson for the conference;
• connecting one or more participants to the conference, wherein connecting one or more participants to the conference comprises receiving a dial-in from at least one conference participant or establishing a dial-out with at least one conference participant;
• delaying one or more connections to the conference by one or more participants until the conference is invoked;
• invoking the conference upon connecting a chairperson to the conference;
• and
• allocating resources for connecting participants to the conference, the resources allocated depending upon participants connected.

A system, comprising:

• a storage device;
• and
• a processor coupled to the storage device, the processor adapted to execute instructions stored in the storage device to:
• display a graphical user interface to a user allowing the user to specify more than one participant in a conference, wherein specifying the more than one participant includes
• identifying individually one or more conference participants,
• indicating whether each of the identified one or more conference participants is a dial-in participant or a dial-out participant, and
• indicating whether one or more of the identified one or more conference participants is a chairperson for the conference, and
• wherein at least one participant is located remotely;
• connect more than one participant to the conference, wherein connecting more than one participant to the conference comprises receiving a dial-in from at least one conference participant or establishing a dial-out with at least one conference participant;
• determine if a chairperson has connected to the conference;
• if the chairperson has connected to the conference then, invoke the conference, allocate resources for the conference, and connect participants to the conference;
• and
• if the chairperson has not connected to the conference then, delay the connection of participants to the conference.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions to cause one or more processors to:

• specify individually in a graphical user interface more than one participant in a conference where at least one participant is located remotely;
• designate in the graphical user interface at least one participant as chairperson;
• receive a request to connect to the conference by more than one participant;
• determine if the chairperson has requested to connect to the conference;
• delay connecting one or more participants to the conference until the request to connect to the conference from the chairperson is received;
• invoke the conference upon receiving the request to connect to the conference from the chairperson;
• message participants to request the participants to connect to the conference via a network, wherein dial-out participants with at least one failed request to connect to the conference and dial-in participants are messaged to request the participants to connect to the conference;
• and
• allocate resources to connect participants to the conference upon the conference being invoked, the resources allocated depending upon participants to connect to the conference.