How to Schedule a Webinar for a Global Audience

Pick one webinar time and you’ll include some regions and exclude others. There’s no slot that works well globally. The goal isn’t to find the perfect time — it’s to make a deliberate choice and communicate it without ambiguity.

Know who you’re actually optimising for

Before picking a time, look at where your registrations actually come from. If 70% are US East Coast and UK, optimise for that. Don’t try to find a time that works for US, Europe, and APAC simultaneously — you’ll land on something marginal for everyone.

US + Europe: 9am–11am EST / 2pm–4pm GMT is the peak window. Morning for East Coast, afternoon for Europe. US West Coast is 6–8am — early, but reachable for motivated attendees.

Europe + APAC: 9am–11am CET / 3pm–5pm SGT works reasonably well. European afternoon, early APAC afternoon. The reverse (8am–10am SGT) puts European attendees at 1–3am — which only works if you accept that region will watch the recording.

Global: No single slot works. Pick your primary region and plan the recording for everyone else.

Windows to avoid

• Friday afternoons in Europe, especially Germany and the Netherlands
• Monday mornings — lower engagement, people are clearing backlogs
• Major holiday clusters: Golden Week, Eid, Christmas week, Diwali. Even if most of your audience isn’t affected, the segment that is won’t register.
• The 2–3 weeks each spring and autumn when US and EU clocks haven’t moved together yet. Invite times cause confusion; attendance drops.

Consider a second session

If your audience genuinely spans the Americas and APAC, one session will always miss someone during business hours. Two sessions — typically 9am EST and 9am SGT — reach both without anyone joining at midnight. The extra production overhead is usually worth it for high-value webinars.

Write the time unambiguously

“Tuesday at 2pm ET” in a confirmation email is how you get attendees in other regions converting manually and getting it wrong, especially near DST transitions.

In your confirmation and reminder, include:

• The UTC time: “14:00 UTC”
• 2–3 major local times: “9am New York / 2pm London / 10pm Singapore”
• A meetwhen link so attendees can verify the time in their own city

In the calendar invite, set the event in UTC and let calendar tools convert to local time. Don’t anchor it to “New York time” — the conversion may be wrong for attendees if DST transitions are in play.

Tell registrants upfront whether you’re recording and when it’ll be available. For APAC attendees looking at a US-optimised webinar at midnight, “recording available within 24 hours” is what decides whether they register.