US Patent 8654954 System and method for controlling access to conference calls

A conferencing system enables conference participants to control external party access to an ongoing conference call by providing a conference server that includes a conference client operable to manage a conference call between conference participants, an interface operable to receive an instruction during the conference call that defines a policy to control external party access to the conference call and a processor for executing the conference client to initiate the conference call and process the instruction.