How to Schedule International Meetings

International meetings fail less often because time zones are hard, and more often because participants mean different things by "local time." A reasonable 10 AM in New York might be late night in Tokyo — and DST can add another hour of error if ignored.

Step 1: Use IANA time zone IDs

Avoid vague labels like "East Coast time." Specify IANA zones: America/New_York, Asia/Shanghai, Europe/London. The US has six time zones; Russia has eleven. Each country page on Global Clock lists the capital's IANA zone.

Step 2: Find overlapping work hours

• Asia ↔ Europe: overlap often around UTC 08:00–11:00 (EU morning / Asia afternoon)
• Asia ↔ US West Coast: US evening matches Asia morning (roughly UTC 01:00–04:00)
• Europe ↔ US East: overlap around UTC 13:00–17:00
• Asia + Europe + US together: very narrow window — someone may need flexible hours

Step 3: Verify with tools

Before sending a calendar invite, run the proposed date and time through our Convert. If the meeting is near March or October, read the DST Guide guide to confirm whether DST has switched.

Common mistakes

• Assuming the offset never changes — US/EU gaps shift by 1–2 hours during DST transitions
• Using capital time for entire countries — required for US, Russia, Australia, etc.
• Rounding half-hour zones — India (UTC+5:30) and Nepal (UTC+5:45) need exact math
• Best practice: show multiple time zones in the invite and list each city's local time