Conformal methods for massless Feynman integrals and large N_f methods

We review the large N method of calculating high order information on the renormalization group functions in a quantum field theory which is based on conformal integration methods. As an example these techniques are applied to a typical graph contributing to the beta-function of O(N) phi^4 theory at O(1/N^2). The possible future directions for the large N methods are discussed in light of the development of more recent techniques such as the Laporta algorithm.