Handling time zones with iECHO

Learn how iECHO automatically handles time zones and Daylight Saving Time for program administrators and participants.

Managing programs across different time zones can be challenging, but with iECHO, handling global scheduling is smooth and hassle-free.

iECHO automatically manages time zone differences and Daylight Saving Time, eliminating the need for manual adjustments. This streamlines communication and reduces the need for separate updates by delivering notifications according to each participant’s preferred time zone.

Participant Groups :

In iECHO, each participant group is assigned a default administrative time zone, which is used for scheduling and automated notifications.

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You can create a participant group to schedule sessions in either the default time zone of the batch or your own time zone if it differs. Set the date, time, and time zone that work best for you when creating a session.

Participants across the world will see the date and time of each session in their local time zone or in the time zone they have chosen in their profile settings.

How Daylight Saving Time is handled

In various time zones, clocks move forward by 1 hour in spring/summer and move back by 1 hour in fall/winter. This is called Daylight Saving Time.

Note: If a program is scheduled in a time zone that observes Daylight Saving Time (DST), recurring sessions will stay on the same schedule. However, for participants in time zones that do not observe DST, the session time may shift by up to 1 hour.

Here is an example of the impact of Daylight Saving Time:
  1. An ECHO program has a participant group scheduled in Mountain Time (Denver/Albuquerque) every Tuesday at 2 p.m.
  2. This program has participants joining from Albuquerque (which follows DST) as well as Phoenix (which does not follow DST). It shows 2 p.m. for both sets of users.
  3. On the second Sunday in March, the clocks in Denver move forward by 1 hour.
    • As the program was scheduled in Mountain Time, the time does not change for participants joining from Albuquerque (they will still see the session scheduled for 2 p.m.).
    • Participants joining from Phoenix will now see the sessions scheduled for 1 p.m.
  4. If the participant group time zone was set to Phoenix time, the time would stay the same for participants in Phoenix, but would change to 3 p.m. for participants in Albuquerque.

If you have any questions or experience issues, please contact us at support@iecho.org.