Conference call time zone

Businesses today are global with employees, vendors, and partners scattered across the globe. While the occasional business trip is unavoidable, collaboration using a simple, international conference call allows participants to stay put and avoid the hassles and expenses of international travel. Whether you’re working on a large-scale project with team members located in diverse locations around the world or part of a smaller team needing to collaborate with a few colleagues in different countries, the simplicity of an international conference call remains one of the best ways to share ideas.

Start by listing the participants along their countries. For example, if your international conference calls will involve participants from countries such as China, Australia, Philippines, Canada, and the United States, you’ll need to find an international conference calling plan that supports those countries or offers “dial out” to those countries. The way international conference calling works, participants from other countries dial a toll free number for their countries in order to connect to the phone conference.

Since you’ll be teleconferencing with attendees from around the world, everyone will be in different time zones. Business hours for your teleconference may be the middle of the night for your participants. Use a time zone map to determine the time of day that works best for the majority of the people or for the key people involved in the call. Don’t forget that the International Date Line may come into play. For example, if the call takes place at 11:00 AM in Los Angeles on May 10th, your Chinese participants will be calling at 2:00 AM on May 11th. Optionally, you may be able to set up call recording so that attendees who missed the international conference call can listen to it later.