As far as I know, the only difference is that a conference is a scheduled chat.

I like your other ideas too! :-)

>Hi Todd,
>
>I'll reply here to give MarkM the added 'weight' he is looking for...
>
>Nick, in another thread, just told me that "Chat" can happen anytime. Is there some difference between "Chat" and a "conference" (my WEB-challenged intuition comes to the fore again!)?
>
>Some are responding that they are 'willing to help' in getting one set up and going. What does doing so entail - I had thought that simply clicking on "Chat" was all that was needed??
>
>I would surely participate from time to time.
>
>It might be helpful if the UT had some way to "intrinsically" let anyone logged in know that there is action going on in "Chat". Some ideas for this could be:
>a) changing the Chat icon to a non-white background when one is underway;
>b) adding an icon bottom-left (with the 'new messages' and 'mail' icons), possibly even with a number indicating how many there;
>c) changing the background colour of the (large) upper-right area (the one with the message headers) to indicate activity in Chat.
>d) I'm sure there are even better ways.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Jim N
>
>>I really don't feel "proper" about chatting during working hours (And besides that, my browser at work won't hook up to the "chat" center)
>>
>>Maybe we could schedule a conference to begin after work? Or on the weekends, or something like that? Maybe bill it as a "alternate time zone chat" or something?