There's an IRC channel for Grid12 over on Sorcery (same server as the realm IRC). The address is: irc.sorcery.net #Grid12. You can access the chat using any client (see here for a list of clients - mibbit is a web-based one that works everywhere), or just use the widget at the top of the page.
IRC is a text chat system. There is no support for voice or video chat. Before you annoyedly state that this is obvious, I'd like to note that no less that four people have asked me how to talk over irc.
Ops: Amitp, Frogboffin, Hypevosa, Tarbomb, Univoid
Rob goes by robjetbolt, robgrid12, robathome, and robatwork. Tim goes by timjetbolt.
You'll probably want to register your nick to prevent people from impersonating you. To do so, select a nick you like by doing /nick myname, and then (if the nick isn't already taken) type the following command into the chat (make sure there's no space before the first slash!) /msg nickserv register mypasswordhere myemail@address.com. The email parameter is optional. Next time you log on, choose your nick and type msg nickserv id mypasswordhere to identify yourself; your nick will be changed in 60 seconds if you don't identify yourself.
Current beta testers are indicated by voice (+v). If you're a beta tester, make sure you're registered and identified, and then ask an op to add you to the access list.
If you have any comments or complaints about the chatroom (any, really!), report them to an op, or post it on this thread. We don't know what your user experience is like if you don't tell us!
Answer these three questions. If nobody on the IRC gives you a code (either because everyone's AFK or because nobody was sufficiently impressed), don't lose hope - you can still apply on the forums.