The Traveling Organizer Problem: Fun with Time Zones
Let's say you live in Los Angeles and you need to organize a meeting that will take place in Nashville, TN at some future date. To keep it simple, let's say that all of the other participants live, if not in Nashville, at least somewhere in the US Eastern time zone. Finally, on the day that you must schedule the meeting you are in Los Angeles.
How do you get the meeting request to apear on everyone's calendar at the correct local time for each participant on the day of the meeting?
Answer?
The only way to do it is to change your computer's time zone setting to the zone you will be in at the time of the meeting, send the meeting request, then reset the computer's time zone to your current locale.
Unfortunately, using this approach demands that you ALWAYS change your computer's timezone setting as you travel, because your appontments (at least those you requested using Outlook Meeting Request feature) will always be shown at the correct time for whatever time zone your computer thinks it is in.
If you're like me, you simply record items on your calendar as if it were a paper calendar. Such a calendar has perfect intelligence about your current locale and no intelligence whatsoever about where other participants might have been when the meeting was scheduled, or where they will be when the meeting occurs.
Though you may not realize it, such calendars are warped. Say you have an early morning meeting in Atlanta, then a 10:00am flight to Los Angeles that arrives at 12:00 noon, and more meetings starting immediately on your arrival that afternoon. Now, for the sake of argument, let's say you have a lot of work to complete on the flight and you like to keep a schedule. You've got five hours of uninterrupted time to schedule... but wait, there are only two hours of "white space" available on your calendar! Your calendar is warped.
Electronic calendars, such as MS Outlook, are not warped. Outlook stores all appointment times in UTC format, meaning that the locale of the meeting is effectively embedded in the time code.
Unfortunately, because of this, electronic calendars such as Outlook can be terribly difficult to use when you travel frequently. We need a better solution to this problem.
How do you get the meeting request to apear on everyone's calendar at the correct local time for each participant on the day of the meeting?
Answer?
The only way to do it is to change your computer's time zone setting to the zone you will be in at the time of the meeting, send the meeting request, then reset the computer's time zone to your current locale.
Unfortunately, using this approach demands that you ALWAYS change your computer's timezone setting as you travel, because your appontments (at least those you requested using Outlook Meeting Request feature) will always be shown at the correct time for whatever time zone your computer thinks it is in.
If you're like me, you simply record items on your calendar as if it were a paper calendar. Such a calendar has perfect intelligence about your current locale and no intelligence whatsoever about where other participants might have been when the meeting was scheduled, or where they will be when the meeting occurs.
Though you may not realize it, such calendars are warped. Say you have an early morning meeting in Atlanta, then a 10:00am flight to Los Angeles that arrives at 12:00 noon, and more meetings starting immediately on your arrival that afternoon. Now, for the sake of argument, let's say you have a lot of work to complete on the flight and you like to keep a schedule. You've got five hours of uninterrupted time to schedule... but wait, there are only two hours of "white space" available on your calendar! Your calendar is warped.
Electronic calendars, such as MS Outlook, are not warped. Outlook stores all appointment times in UTC format, meaning that the locale of the meeting is effectively embedded in the time code.
Unfortunately, because of this, electronic calendars such as Outlook can be terribly difficult to use when you travel frequently. We need a better solution to this problem.
posted by Charles Ames at 10:58 PM
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