Patent ID: 7680912

Claim:
A system for managing a plurality of participants to an event comprising: a plurality of participant manager devices installed within a network communication system and logically connected in a hierarchy amongst themselves and between a director device and a plurality of participant devices, wherein each of the participant manager devices is assigned a level within the hierarchy, and wherein each of the participant manager devices is configured to automatically determine its position within the hierarchy when entering the hierarchy by performing the following: transmitting an announce message to other participant manager devices in the hierarchy; identifying a current upstream participant manager device as being one level higher than the entering participant manager computing device; iteratively comparing hierarchy levels of participant manager devices responding to the announce message to identify responding participant manager devices having a hierarchy level between the current upstream participant manager device and the entering participant manager device; and in response to identifying a responding participant manager device having a hierarchy level between the current upstream participant manager device and the entering participant manager device, transmitting an attach message to the responding participant manager device having a hierarchy level between the current upstream participant manager device and the entering participant manager device.