Patent ID: 8515043

Claim:
A method of carrying out a conference comprising: a plurality of conference participant devices each connecting to a respective one of a plurality of conference participant data interfaces of a multi-point control unit for a telephone conference, bidirectional exchanging of conference participant data that is at least partially comprised of voice data for the telephone conference being provided via the conference participant devices connecting to the conference participant data interfaces; at least one decision processing unit connecting to the conference participant data interfaces of the multi-point control unit via at least one rerouting device such that conference participant data for each of the conference participant devices is rerouted to the at least one decision processing unit such that conference participant data from each of the conference participant devices is not mixed with other conference participant data from other conference participant devices when routed to the at least one decision processing unit; the at least one decision processing unit carrying out a voice based dialogue with conference participants via the connection to the conference participant data interfaces that comprises: (i) the at least one decision processing unit presenting the conference participants with at least one decision making point in a form of a question, and (ii) each of the conference participant devices transmitting an answer to the question via conference participant data that is comprised of voice data that is transmitted to the at least one decision processing unit via the at least one rerouting device such that the answer from each conference participant device is not mixed with answers from other conference participant devices; the at least one decision processing unit registering the answer received from each of the conference participant devices and saving that answer in a machine-readable form; and the at least one decision processing unit automatically generating a log file that identifies the question and the answer to the question received from each of the conference participant devices and identifies an outcome of voting and identifies how the conference participants voted.