April 2025
Editor's Note
April showers bring May flowers and Mayflowers bring pilgrims… ha ha ha? No? Not funny? You know what really isn’t funny? Being stressed about having 150+ kids, their projects, and a leaking ceiling! True story. We just want to take a minute to let you all know how brilliant and savvy all you event managers are. You have to think on your feet and solve the most crazy problems, in minutes, to keep your event running smoothly.
We, at zFairs, commit to you to continue to improve our software, so that you have less things to worry about and you can get back to patching up those holes. We wish you smooth sailing (like those pilgrims…;) for all of your events!
Welcome to zFairs!
Heartland Bio-Innovation Challenge
Mississippi State Science and Engineering Fair
Featuring: Poetry Out Loud
The Utah Division of Arts and Museum supports the Utah State competitions Poetry Out Loud and Poetry Ourselves.
Poetry Ourselves empowers students to express themselves through the composition of their own works of poetry. Poetry Out Loud is a state and National competition where students grades 9-12 memorize and recite works from classical and modern masters. This program not only supports education of literary arts, but also helps students master public speaking skills.
We want to thank the Utah Division of Arts and Museum for being great clients for the last 4 years, and we wish all the poetry students the best of luck next season!
Team Notes:
Our communications specialist, Anna Dewey, has been busy volunteering and visiting a variety of fairs throughout Utah, learning about how they operate and getting to know our wonderful community. We are looking forward to seeing our NHD friends at the national competition in June, and we are excited to attend other various events throughout the next few months.
zFairs Tip: Virtual Interviews
We get a few phone calls a year about connection problems during the virtual interview process. It is a very stressful time and we understand that sometimes things don’t always go as planned. So we put together a list of things to try before you start to panic:
- Check the network: This is usually the issue. Schools and other public internet access often have restrictions in place and cause the connection to not work. The solution is to try a different network, or connecting to a personal hotspot or internet. They can also try using their personal cellular data and hold the interview on their own device.
- Check the computer: Sometimes the computer or device itself is the issue. Maybe the camera and the microphone just aren’t compatible. We always recommend having a second device ready for back up.
- Check audio and video settings: Sometimes it is just that simple.
- Close other programs and check performance: Other running programs may slow down video and audio speed. Closing other open windows and apps usually helps. Your device may also allow you to adjust performance levels for video conferencing, and adjusting to lower performance may help.
We hope that these tips will help you have a successful virtual event. If you are still experiencing issues, please reach out to us at: 800-252-0903.
New and Improved
We have heard you! Here are some things we have improved:
New this Month
Lots of changes for judging!
- Judging groups added to judging setup and judging rounds
- Option added to allow judges to request more work
- Judging captain pages will now only show approved projects
- Added tags to category page to assign judges
- You can now print judge evals
- Print option on special awards page added
- We fixed some certificates to have a better layout
- Added an alternate payment option for payouts