This past weekend clocks moved forward one hour in the United States, with the exception of Hawaii and almost all of Arizona, and in most of Canada. The rest of the world changes at other intervals for varying reasons. This is called Daylight Saving Time (DST), which started in 1895 in Germany and Hungary. The practice has both fans and critics. Putting clocks forward benefits retailers, sports, and farmers that utilize daylight. DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, and sleep patterns….not to mention webinars.
Those of us who organize webinars with attendees from all around the world start twitching around DST. How do you begin to be sure everyone in your audience understands what time the event starts? There is some assistance available. A website called Daylight Saving Time Around the World to the rescue. It doesn’t fix all the angst, but it is a start.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
