Abstract: Meeting participants of a videoconference can be enabled to alert the other meeting participants that they are going to be away from or inattentive during a portion of the videoconference. For example, each meeting participant can be presented with a user interface element, such as a button, that the meeting participant can select to alert the other meeting participants that the meeting participant will be away or inattentive during a portion of the videoconference. The meeting participants can also be enabled to alert an away meeting participant to rejoin the videoconference. For example, meeting participants can be presented with a user interface element, such as a button, that can be selected to send an alert to an away meeting participant to rejoin the teleconference. A meeting participant can also select to be alerted when a specified alert trigger occurs, such as when a specified word or phrase is used.