A colleague asked me about online scheduling of parent-teacher conferences and I came upon this today.  Earlier this year I had looked at some pretty robust paid solutions, but it seems as if SkyLark Productions' SignUpGenius can handle most of what we were looking for...and it's free!

I only played around with it for a short while, but the interface is very intuitive and flexible.  You can choose how many people are "needed" for a particular slot and vary the dates and times of events.  You can also set up recurring events.  You do not need to force users to set up an account, but it is reccomended if you want them to receive a reminder.  One of the best options is one that allows users to switch time slots with each other, rather than needing to go through a central "list manager."

We'll see how it goes this first go around, but I am optimistic because I have been so impressed by both the simplicity and the depth of this tool.