zFairs Newsletter

Issue 23 • September 2026

Getting Ready for a Fresh Start!

The “fresh start effect” is a term in psychology that describes the sudden motivation to change one’s habits or routine after a significant temporal landmark, like the start of a new year, a birthday, or even Monday.

September is one of those significant temporal landmarks because not only does it represent the start of a school year, but it is also the turning point from a summer vacation mindset to a regular work schedule. 

Right now, the majority of you are deep in the trenches of getting your sites ready for a brand-new season of participant registration. We know firsthand how much work goes into this transition—from meticulously archiving last year’s data to auditing your setup for the crowd ahead. We are incredibly grateful for the trust you place in us to power these events, and we never take for granted the hard work you put into building your communities. 

Our focus this month is to help you get your registrations and forms set up and ready to go. From the tips and tricks in this Newsletter, to our Webinar and social media, we want to get you ready to go.

New Members

Welcome To Our Newest Clients!

Poetry Out Loud New Mexico

InVenture Prize, Georgia (ICW*)

Purdue Essay Contest, Indiana (ICW*)

And

Our New NHD Contests:  Granite SD and Uintah Basin, UT; Elementary MiniBoard Contest, CO; Sarasota Middle School, MD

*Invention Convention Worldwide

What's New

                                   

This is what’s NEW:

• • The Bulk Mailer has received a facelift! You can now schedule emails to be sent automatically. You can set a specific date and time or have it sent relative to a system date, like when participant registration opens. You can see the list of scheduled emails in the "Scheduled" tab.
• • Teachers can now do Bulk Registrations. The bulk registrations work the same as csv imports. Click HERE to watch a video on how to do the bulk registrations. Make sure to turn on the config "Teacher - Allow to Bulk Register Students" to allow this access to your teachers.
• • Participants can now quickly access their forms regardless if using Paperwork Upload or the Forms Packets. They will see "Paperwork" in their menu which will take them to their forms.  
• • Auto tags can now be used to filter judges during round setup. This is particularly useful for when using auto tags to assign judging sessions.

New Configs:

Check Duplicate Email - ______ - This will check for duplicate emails during registration for selected user. This helps prevent users from making multiple accounts with the same email.

Entry Submission - Enable standalone Submitted state - This will create a submission button where students can submit their project after all required fields are filled out. This includes paperwork submission. This can be used as the primary submission instead of a "completed registration". (Video on this setting coming soon)

Entry Submission- Submit Deadline - Gives participants a deadline of when they can submit their entries.

Allow Users to Remove Themselves from Event - This does what it says, allows users to remove their registrations themselves. This will show as a banner at the bottom of the profile pages, and as an option in the dropdown under the users name.

Updates:

We have had a bunch of new updates! Check out these areas:

•  The Dashboard:

• New Stats
• Added entry preview
• Stat graphs

•  Auto Assign Judging

• Added new stats to show judge preferences 
• Added Previous Runs details
• Added assignment audit that lets you quickly know when there are issues in the assigning, or if all looks good
• Fixed bugs with over/under assigning

Getting your registrations set up? Follow these tips to get it all done and looking pretty!

Create test accounts: The best way to see what your participants, judges and teachers will see, is to create accounts you can log into to see how it all looks. Start by "creating an account" from the menu. Enter in the log in details. We like to pick fun character names. Make up their username and put in a dummy email address (or your own). When you create an account as an admin, you can bypass the email validation and just continue on with the registration. But if you do enter in an actual email, this will also confirm validation is working.

Demographics: Now that you have created a test account, go through each section to make sure it is asking the questions you need. First look at the profile. What demographics do you need to show for sponsors, grants and other funding stats? What about for your own stats? 

If you aren't seeing certain questions or your state has changed their laws about what you have permission to gather, go to the "i" and search for "Registration Setup". This will give you access to all the settings for each user type. Turn ON or OFF the configs you need or don't need.  

If you don't see a config for that information, add it to the "custom questions" area for that user. NOTE: participants have 2 custom question areas; One for Profile questions and one for Entry questions.

Set your dates: Go to the "i" and search for "Dates and Sessions". This is where you can go to set the dates that can control certain site settings. The only dates you need to worry about for registration are the participants registration Starts/Ends and the Judge/Volunteer sessions.

Setting the participant registration starts/ends dates will allow or prevent access for participants to register.

Setting up your judge and volunteer sessions here will allow them to show during their registration.

Setup your fee: If you are charging a fee for participants/entries, take a moment to make sure all the fee settings are correct and charging the right amount. Navigate to the "i" and search "Registration Fees" to see the settings for participant and attendee fees.

If you need to set up "Schools are Paying" options where an invoice will be generated for the school, go to your school manager settings and within the manager, select the box that says "This school is paying for registration fees; don't ask participants." 

REACH OUT! If you have any questions on registration set up, please reach out to support@zfairs.com and we can either walk you through a certain setup, or schedule a virtual meeting to show you.

🙋 Open Office Hours with Anna

Every Friday at 5:00 PM MST (starting Aug. 7)

Come in and ask any question you may have, or get help setting up your site.

NEED HELP? GET IN TOUCH