Patent ID: 8290134

Claim:
A method of managing conference calls among a plurality of participants and a moderator by a system, each of said participants being associated with a line, which method comprises: said system placing said plurality of participants into a conference call; said system muting the line associated with each of said plurality of participants on said conference call; receiving a request to speak from a first participant of said plurality of participants; placing said first participant at a position in a talk queue, said talk queue having at least a top position and a bottom position; determining if said first participant has entered a priority code, wherein when entered by a participant, said priority code assigns a higher priority in said talk queue to said participant; in response to determining said first participant has entered said priority code, placing said first participant at said top position in said talk queue; in response to determining said first participant has not entered said priority code, placing said first participant at said bottom position in said talk queue; and selecting, from said talk queue, a participant at said top position of said talk queue; and in response to selecting said participant at said top position of said talk queue: deleting said participant at said top position of said talk queue; setting said participant at said top position of said talk queue as a speaker; and unmuting said line associated with said speaker, thereby giving said speaker a turn to speak and to be heard by said plurality of participants on the conference call; wherein a line for each of said plurality of participants who is not said speaker remains muted.