April 2026

Editor's Note

There’s a spider in your hair! April Fools’!

The origins of April Fools’ Day is still unknown, but many countries and cultures celebrate days of light hearted pranks and tricks, and have celebrated for centuries.

One popular origin story traces back to 16th-century France and the tradition of Poisson d’Avril (April Fish). With records dating as far back as 1501, the term refers to the victims of pranks, who were likened to young, easily caught spring fish. Even today, the French celebrate every April 1st by secretly taping paper fish to the backs of unsuspecting friends and colleagues.

They say April Fools' is for the gullible, but we think it’s just for the young at heart. At zFairs, we try to bring a little 'magic' to your workflow so it feels like a trick, but works like a charm. Check out our NEW & IMPROVED section below to see how we’re making the 'impossible' tasks disappear this year.

NEW & IMPROVED

This is what’s NEW:

• Paperwork NAG email now recorded in messages so users can see them on their profile.
• You can now assign captains for special awards.
• Manually input scores from judges without having to go into their profile. (see video on YouTube)
• NHD - A lock feature has been added to your judging schedule so you can lock assignments in place. DON’T FORGET TO SAVE after locked.
• Store items can now be grouped and shoppers can check out individual items from the group. This is specifically helpful when working with housing and meal plans.

New Configs:

• Participants - School list filter out schools with the same name: this helps when schools are created by teachers or students and when state reports have duplicated entries.
• Showcase - Show Default ISEF Packet (if using): if using zFairs default ISEF packet in Forms Manager, the default setting is to show all ISEF forms in the showcase. This config allows you to override that setting and hide the forms.

UPDATES:

• Lots of updates to NHD! Take a look:
  • Updated paper link on judge landing page
  • Templates now show finals
  • Other updates to judge portal
• Promotion history is now recorded.
• The assigned category to judges now reflects in Auto Assign. The category assigned takes first precedence over any other chosen category. Filter according to category when making category assignments.

Team Notes:

The team is hard at work reducing the learning curve for zFairs. We understand that transitions in event leadership can be challenging, so we are expanding our efforts to make the platform more intuitive and user-friendly.

Here is what we are working on:

• Interactive "i" Guides (Branches): We are updating existing help "branches" and adding new ones. These will provide better step-by-step "How To" instructions, guiding you directly to the right tools to customize your event.
• Enhanced "All Settings" Page:
  • Contextual Definitions: When you click an information icon, you will now see a clear definition of what that specific configuration does and any associated settings.
  • Smarter Search: We are boosting the search functionality so you can find the exact configuration you need in seconds.
  • Clearer Naming: We are renaming several configurations to be more descriptive, allowing you to understand their function at a glance without even needing to click the help icon.







zFairs TIP: Showing Awards





You can publicly show award results in the showcase! Turn ON the configuration “Showcase - Show Awards” and a little ribbon icon will show on the tile of the individuals who were issued awards. If you just click into the icon, it will list what awards were given. Red ribbon icons are placement/category awards and blue ribbon icons are for special awards.

You can set public access open and close dates by going to the “i” and searching for Dates and Sessions, or in All Settings and search for “public access”.

April 2026 zfairs.com | 800.252.0903 | Support@zFairs.com