A customized list of real-time conference participants are obtained by selecting a conference group and then selecting members of the group to be excluded using an exclusion list feature. In alternative embodiments, one or more logical operators such as AND or OR are selected and applied to conference groups the user has selected. The logical operators and selected conference groups are sent to a conference server, which applies the operator to the selected groups to arrive at a shortlist of conference participants. The invention is particularly useful for cellular telephones initiating a real-time conference using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and a SIP server resident on a network.