Understanding Timezones on Luma

How Luma handles timezones for events and calendars

At Luma, we know timezones can be confusing. As a company that started during COVID helping people with online events, we’ve felt the pain of coordinating across time zones firsthand. That’s why we’ve built Luma to handle timezones intelligently, so you don’t have to worry about them.

How Event Times Are Displayed

In-person events show times in the event location’s timezone, which is set automatically and can’t be changed manually. If an event is happening in San Francisco, you’ll see it in Pacific Time, regardless of where you’re viewing from.

Online events show times in your timezone, making it easy to know exactly when to join from anywhere in the world.

Event lists (like “Your Events” or calendar feeds) show both the event’s original time and your local time in parentheses when they differ. This way, you can see both the “official” event time and what time it is for you.

Email Notifications

We apply the same smart rules to email notifications:

In-person events: Emails show the time in the event’s location timezone
Online events: Emails show the time in the recipient’s timezone

Important for hosts: When you send emails to guests for online events, each guest will see the time converted to their own timezone. If we don’t know a guest’s timezone, we’ll use either the sender’s timezone or the event’s timezone as a fallback.

Automatic Timezone Detection

Luma automatically detects your timezone based on your current location when using our website or apps. We update this each time you visit, so it stays current even when you travel.

Using a VPN? If you’re using a VPN, it might confuse our timezone detection. Simply turning off your VPN or switching to a server in your actual location will help us pick up your correct timezone automatically.

Calendars: If you set a location for your calendar, we automatically determine the timezone from that location. This ensures all events on that calendar display consistently.

Manual settings: Currently, you cannot manually change your timezone in Luma - we pick it up automatically based on your location. This automatic detection ensures you always see the most accurate times based on where you actually are.

British Columbia and Alberta’s 2026 Time Change

From 2026, British Columbia (UTC-7) and Alberta (UTC-6) stay on daylight time year-round and no longer switch back to standard time on November 1. Luma uses the new rule, but devices, browsers and calendar apps with outdated timezone data may still apply the old one. That makes B.C. and Alberta event times on or after November 1 look an hour off.

Seeing the wrong time? Update your browser and operating system, and your calendar app if the time there looks off. Older versions of Chrome, Windows and Outlook are the most common culprits.

For hosts: If you created or edited a B.C. or Alberta event on an outdated device, the saved time may be an hour off. Re-enter the event time and confirm it on the event page.

Emails and calendar apps: Luma emails already show the correct time. Calendar apps like Outlook convert times with their own timezone data, so they may show the old time until they’re updated.

Our Philosophy

We believe dealing with timezones shouldn’t be your problem. By automatically handling timezone conversions and displaying times intelligently based on context, we aim to make scheduling and attending events as seamless as possible, whether you’re organizing a local meetup or a global online conference.