It won't make a difference. Some refugee hearings are held by video conference: the claimant and the refugee board member are in different cities.
The date of his claim will be the main factor behind the date of his hearing. As Buletruck said, the IRB is working under FIFO: First in, First Out.
That means IRB will focus first on all the legacy claims (and probably claims from designated countries) and then start working on the remaining claims from oldest to newest.