A system (10) and method (50) for enabling phone users to participate in an instant messaging based conference can include the steps of receiving (52) a speech input from a telephone (26 or 28) through a teleconferencing system (24), transcribing (54) the speech input to a first text message and transmitting (58) the first text message to a plurality of devices (18, 20, 26 or 28) coupled to an instant messaging network belonging to the instant messaging based conference. The method can further include the steps of receiving (60) a second text message from any one among the plurality of devices on the instant messaging based conference, converting (62) the second text message to a speech output, and transmitting (68) the speech output to the telephone via the teleconferencing system.