This month I am off to Convergence in San Diego, California. One of the best parts of Convergence is meeting new people. We schedule appointments to meet for about 1/2 hour and discuss new opportunities. A major problem of showing up on time can be avoided if you follow these simple rules.

1) Schedule everything in Pacific Time.

2) Switch your time zone to Pacific Time when you arrive.

Outook 2007 has a cool feature on each apointment that lets you set the time zone of the appointment.  

You can have Microsoft Outlook display a second time zone in your Calendar by selecting the "Show an additional time zone" check box in the Time Zone dialog box. The second time zone is used only to show a second time bar in the Calendar view and does not affect the way Calendar items are stored or displayed.

Here's how:

On the Tools menu | Options | Calendar Options.

Click Time Zone

Add a time zone:

Select the Show an additional time zone check box.

In the Label box, type a description.

In the Time zone box, list the time zone you want to add | OK

This is how my schedule looks now, as I am planning a trip to San Diego next week.

When I arrive in San Diego I will change my computer to the local time zone (Pacific) and my breakfast appointment will show up at 9:00 AM in Outlook. My pocket PC will ring at 8:45 AM to remind me that my breakfast meeting is going to happen in 15 minutes. This is because Outlook will change the time of the appointment to reflect the local time zone the computer is set to.