Conference calls that call you

Cell phone rings in the middle of a conference presentation: bad.

Sixty-eight cell phones ring in the middle of a conference presentation: Room breaks into applause. (And 68 phones ringing simultaneously don't exactly constitute an orchestra.)

Creating this cacophony was a startup called Vello and its service of the same name, both making their debut this morning at DEMOfall07 here in San Diego.

Vello "removes the pain of conference calls," says Mark Dzwonczk, president and COO of the company. And it does so by calling the participants instead of waiting for the participants to figure out when and how to call in.

Dzwonczk demonstrated the service's capability by calling those 68 ringers who had volunteered beforehand to lend their phones to the DEMO demonstration. Quite impressive, too.

Vello integrates with Outlook and appears relatively painless to use.

"I'll bet you've never been on a conference call where everyone was on the call within 15 seconds of the start time," says Dzwonczk.

That's a bet he's unlikely to lose.