I didn’t notice this feature until recently, but iCal 1.5.5 can use alternate time zones when creating an event.

Thanks to the wonder of telecommuting, my employer’s time zone is 3 hours earlier than mine, so conference calls and other events are given in West Coast time. Until now I mentally converted the time when I added an appointment to my calendar.

iCal’s preference window has a checkbox labeled ‘Enable time zone support’. If you enable it, you’ll see a time zone popup menu at the top of the main window. There’s also a time zone popup in the event info panel. If you select a different time zone when creating an event, the calendar window will show the correct time for that event in the current time zone.

Now when I schedule an appointment for 10:30 Pacific time, iCal tells me that it’s 1:30 my time and will even set the alarm properly.