Teleconferencing systems and methods

1. A method implemented by a teleconferencing system, comprising:

assigning a first teleconferencing bridge to a teleconference, wherein the assignment is responsive to a projected future workload of the first teleconference bridge during the teleconference;

forwarding, responsive to the assignment of the teleconferencing bridge to the teleconference, a first plurality of communication sessions corresponding to the teleconference to the first teleconferencing bridge, wherein the first teleconferencing bridge is configured to connect each of the first plurality of communication sessions to each other communication session among the first plurality of communication sessions;

determining that the capacity of the first teleconferencing bridge will be insufficient to accommodate a projected number of additional communication sessions to support the teleconference;

assigning at least one additional teleconferencing bridge to the teleconference;

linking the first teleconferencing bridge to the at least one additional teleconferencing bridge;

receiving additional communication sessions for the teleconference; and

forwarding to the at least one additional teleconferencing bridge at least one of the additional communication sessions.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein assigning the first teleconferencing bridge to the teleconference is also responsive to the projected future workload and a workload capacity of at least one other teleconferencing bridge.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein assigning the first teleconferencing bridge to the teleconference is performed after a communication session corresponding to the teleconference is received by the teleconferencing system.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein assigning the first teleconferencing bridge to the teleconference is performed by a back office server in the teleconferencing system.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein forwarding the first plurality of communication sessions corresponding to the teleconference to the at least one additional teleconferencing bridge is performed by at least one caller interaction server responsive to teleconferencing bridge assignment information provided to the caller interaction server by the back office server.

6. A teleconferencing system comprising:

a first server configured to assign a first teleconferencing bridge to a teleconference responsive to at least a projected future workload of the first teleconferencing bridge; and

a second server coupled to the first server via a teleconferencing network and configured to forward, responsive to the assignment by the first server of the first teleconferencing bridge to the teleconference, a first plurality of communication sessions corresponding to the teleconference to the first teleconferencing bridge, wherein the first teleconferencing bridge is configured to connect each of the first plurality of communication sessions to other sessions among the first plurality of communication sessions and wherein one of the first server and the second server are further configured to transfer, responsive to a determination that the first teleconferencing bridge has insufficient capacity to accommodate a projected future workload for the first teleconferencing bridge, a subset of the first plurality of communication sessions corresponding to the teleconference from the first teleconferencing bridge to a second teleconferencing bridge, wherein the first teleconferencing bridge and the second teleconferencing bridge are linked to jointly enable the teleconference.

7. The teleconferencing system of claim 6 , wherein the second server is further configured to assign at least one additional communication session corresponding to the teleconference to the second teleconferencing bridge.

8. The teleconferencing system of claim 6 , wherein the first server is configured to assign the first teleconferencing bridge to the teleconference responsive to the projected future workload and workload capacity of at least one other bridge.

9. The teleconferencing system of claim 6 , wherein the first server is configured to assign the first teleconferencing bridge to the teleconference after a communication session corresponding to the teleconference is received by the teleconferencing system.

10. The teleconferencing system of claim 6 , wherein the first server is a back office server and the second server is a caller interaction server.