A multipoint control unit coordinator (MCUC) 105. The MCUC 105 tracks all conferences in a telecommunications system and determines how they can be best configured and modified over time. The MCUC 105 instructs multipoint control units MCUs 104 to break down and reconfigure calls, if necessary. A MCUC 105 according to an embodiment of the invention maintains a database of all the MCUs 104 in the system, a measure of processing coding resources, and a geographical location. When two parties seek to add a third in a conference call, the MCUC 105 determines coding resources, geographical locations, and determines the most appropriate mixing location based on preferences, such as network cost or endpoint coding resources or quality. The MCUC 105 then instructs the MCUs 104 to handle the conference accordingly.