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Re: Time Zone for Events

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We have an event table that keeps track of our client’s events around the globe.

Each event takes place in a different time zone.

But Airtable doesn’t allow us to attach a time zone to a date/time field.

We need to view this time in 2 different ways:

  1. The “local time” of the event. This time should always remain the same in the system, since it is the “local time” of the event.
  2. The “translated time” to each user’s time zone when each user logs into the system, so they know what time the event takes place in their own time zone.

How can we successfully use Airtable to accomplish this? Is this even possible in Airtable?

1 Solution

Accepted Solutions

Hahaha! :crazy_face: Great news for you… I figured it out!

LOL, I totally hear you. Even with @Andy_Lin1’s great instructions, I still wasn’t able to figure it out for a while. But I finally cracked the code of time zones! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes:

Here is my sample database & instructional video:

See Solution in Thread

4 Replies 4

All date/time fields in Airtable are stored in GMT time. You can get the time for the event in the time zone for the event using formula fields.

I think I found a solution here, thanks to @Andy_Lin1:

It involves the following:

Field #1 (Date/Time Field set to GMT😞 Typing in the “local time” of the event into a GMT field, so everyone sees the same exact time as the “local time” of the event.

Field #2 (Single Line Text field): Choosing the officially supported name of the time zone for the event.

Field #3 (Formula field resulting in a number): Figure out the offset in hours between our time zone specified in field #2 (when applied to field #1) and the GMT time zone specified in field #1.

Field #4 (Formula field resulting in Date/Time set to GMT😞 Airtable still thinks that the GMT time specified in field #1 is the actual time of our event, but it’s not. So we still need to figure out the REAL GMT TIME of the event in field #1, which is based on the number of offset hours that we calculated in field #3. Then, this field #4 will have the ACTUAL GMT TIME OF THE EVENT. This is the actual GMT time of the event. This field can be hidden from the users, because they won’t need to see this.

Field #5 (Formula field resulting in Date/Time with GMT turned off😞 Same formula as #4, but since GMT is turned off, every user logging into the system will see this field updated with their local time.

I will post a sample database after I create it.

Where were you last week :crazy_face:

@ScottWorld - Please do send a sample base :pray: - I tried this, and honestly I couldn’t get it to work at all.

Hahaha! :crazy_face: Great news for you… I figured it out!

LOL, I totally hear you. Even with @Andy_Lin1’s great instructions, I still wasn’t able to figure it out for a while. But I finally cracked the code of time zones! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes:

Here is my sample database & instructional video: