Vello, who goes by the self-given nickname "The Conference Call That Calls You," was named Audience Favorite in the Business Calls category at the Under the Radar Conference earlier this month.  Yeah, I had no idea what that meant, either, until I read the rest of the press release.  Vello actually sounds like a pretty practical little tool for folks tied to the misery of endless conference calls.

Vello works like other conference call services, but with a unique twist.  When it's call time, participants don't call into the meeting ? Vello calls out to them.  CEO Mark Dzwoncyk demo'd the service during his speech at the conference by initiating a conf. call from his handset onstage.  A few moments later, about a dozen phones in the audience rang out as the Vello service called them to join the conference.  The audience was won over, and I must say it sounds like a nifty service ? last time I had a job that demanded lots of conference calls, we were all constantly emailing one another asking, "What's the dial in number?  What's the access code?" minutes before meetings were scheduled to begin.  Anything that can cut through the technology to let workers focus on their work sounds good to me.

You can check out Vello and register for 200 free minutes of the service at MyVello.com.