Collect conditions before looking for a slot
Ask participants for their actual city, local work hours and any unavailable dates. The meeting planner accepts 2–6 cities, an organizer date, a duration of 30–240 minutes, and a separate work period for each city. The default 09:00–18:00 is a starting assumption, not a statement about someone's availability.
The organizer's city defines the calendar day being searched. A Tokyo participant may be on the following day for part of a New York organizer day. Choosing another organizer changes the date boundary of the search; it is not simply a change of label. Confirm who defines the appointment before generating candidates.
A convenient start is not enough
A 90-minute meeting beginning at 17:30 ends at 19:00. If the participant's workday ends at 18:00, one hour falls outside it. The tool checks the entire interval rather than only the starting clock reading.
For October 13, 2026, with 09:00–18:00 work periods:
| Organizer's meeting | New York | London | Tokyo |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York 09:00–10:00 | 09:00–10:00, within work | 14:00–15:00, within work | 22:00–23:00, outside work |
| New York 10:00–11:00 | 10:00–11:00, within work | 15:00–16:00, within work | 23:00–00:00 next day, outside work |
New York and London have shared options under these conditions. Adding Tokyo removes a full common window. These are date-specific examples, not permanent city differences. Use the converter to check a participant's proposed local time.
Interpret honest compromises
When no full working-hour overlap exists, the tool does not invent one. It ranks compromises by affected-city count, total minutes outside work, the largest individual inconvenience, distance from work-period centers, and finally the earlier instant.
Compare the reason beside each city: early start, late finish, weekend or local-date crossing. A top-ranked result may still be unsuitable. Ask the affected participants whether they agree, rotate inconvenient slots for recurring meetings, or consider asynchronous work. Do not describe the first compromise as “everyone is available.”
Read the comparison without losing dates
Each timeline column is one real instant. The city's own row shows its local clock and date boundaries. Light blue means the complete 30-minute segment fits that city's configured work period; grey means it does not. Selecting a recommendation outlines its covered range across all cities.
Hover, focus or tap a cell to read the full local date, time, IANA zone, offset and work status. Midnight in another city can change the local date while the organizer remains on the chosen day. A DST transition can make the organizer day 23 or 25 hours; the timeline uses the real elapsed intervals, not a fixed 24-hour assumption.
Confirm and send the selected interval
Review weekends explicitly; the tool does not know local public holidays. Work periods must finish later on the same local day. For an overnight shift, compare a suitable same-day portion rather than inventing an unsupported range.
Confirm each participant's start and end date, duration and consent. Then select the candidate before copying or downloading. The calendar and sharing guide explains what the exported event and shared URL contain. For repeating meetings, agree on the intended anchor city and recheck dates around seasonal changes; this tool generates a single event, not a recurrence series.
Reference: IANA regional time-zone rules.