“Dia tidak hadir pada rapat tadi siang.” — Is “pada” the only preposition that can bridge between “hadir” (attended) and “rapat” (meeting)? Can I also use “di” or “dengan”?

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The sentence is retrieved from Tatoeba Corpus and modified by me.
https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/3960330

See a translation

@Crszhx @hasnadinar

Thank you both for your answers. “Dalam” perfectly makes sense to me because it sounds like Tom (not) participated IN the meeting. “Saat” also sounds nice as a translation of “he wasn’t there DURING the meeting”. I feel “dalam” is more proactive participation while “saat” is just the matter of being physically there or not. In the same context, “di” and “saat” could be interchangeable, I guess.

How to interpret “pada” remains unsolved, though…
I understand hasnadinar’s point of view: for example, “Saya pergi ke sekolah pada hari Rabu.” means “I go to school on Wednesday.” The preposition “pada” is used to specify the time of the action.

But I also found another sentence “Kami telah bekerja keras pada proyek ini.” (“We we’re working hard on this project.”) on Tatoeba Corpus. “Pada proyek” suggests that what the purpose or target of the action is, it’s not about when. So, I assumed that “bekerja pada proyek” and “hadir pada rapat” are categorized in the same usage of “pada”.

Any follow-up explanations would be appreciated. Thanks!

Thank you @tsutrisn . To my ears, “di” sounds natural and neutral. “Dalam” is like “to be involved in an initiative” whereas “di” simply suggests “be there” and he might be just an audience or could be a key participant.

Do you think “pada” in this sentence also sounds natural?

@tsutrisn

Aha! It’s a perfect sample sentence for me to understand how to choose “pada” and “di” in different contexts.