Hello everyone,

August and September bring a fresh wave of intelligence to Zoho Backstage. AI takes the spotlight with tools that help you create content, support attendees, and manage how AI fits into your events. Alongside AI, we’ve refined email communication, RSVP accuracy, exhibitor and booth management, and Abstract Management to make everyday event work simpler.

Here’s what we’ve been working on.

Bring AI into your event workflow

From creating event content to answering attendee questions, AI can take care of some of the repetitive work while you stay in control of where and how it is used.

AI Console

The AI Console brings your AI controls together in one place.

From Portal Settings > AI Console, you can control AI usage and decide which features should be enabled by default for future events. These include Content Assistant for writing, NSFW Content Blocker for moderating photos in website galleries, Event Chatbot for attendee support, Face Recognition in Search for finding event photos, and AI Matchmaking for networking.

Portal-level configurations serve as the baseline for newly created events without changing existing ones. Organizers can adjust these settings for individual events from Manage > AI Console.

AI Content Assistant

Writing event content often means creating similar copy across multiple parts of an event. Content Assistant helps make that process quicker, right where you write.

Use Generate Content to create copy based on the available event or module context, or Generate with Prompt when you have something specific in mind. For existing content, use Enhance, Change Tone, Shorten, or Expand, then compare the generated version with the original before inserting it.

Content Assistant works with event summaries and descriptions, speaker bios, sponsor and exhibitor descriptions, Abstract Management, and the website builder’s rich text editor. It also takes each field’s character limit into account.

Turn it on from Manage > AI Console > Content Assistant, and the AI icon will appear in descriptive fields.

AI Event Chatbot

Finding an answer shouldn’t mean searching through page after page of an event website. The AI Event Chatbot gives participants a quicker way to find what they need.

Participants can ask about sessions, speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, venue details, and other publicly available event information. The chatbot can point them toward actions such as View Agenda and Explore Exhibitors, while follow-up suggestions help them continue exploring.

From Manage > AI Console > Event Chatbot > Configure, organizers can personalize the bot’s display name, greeting message, and privacy notice and preview the experience before saving. For private events, the chatbot can be accessed after attendees sign in.

Email enhancements

A few small changes can make emails clearer for attendees and more useful for organizers, from showing when an action expires to sending each attendee their own session schedule.

Show button expiry messages

For email actions that expire, you can show the expiry timeline alongside the button so recipients know how long they have to respond.

Turn on Show Expiry Message for supported automated, scheduled, and reminder emails from Event > Communicate > Emails.

Actions such as accept invitation, view request status, go to your orders, sign in to event, print badge, enter event, manage submission, and review abstract expire after 24 hours. Download badge, download certificate, and subscribe for prospects expire after seven days.

Add session details to scheduled emails

The Session Widget brings each attendee’s registered sessions directly into scheduled emails.

Drag and drop the widget into your template, and when the email is delivered, it populates with the sessions that particular recipient has registered for. This lets you send personalized schedules through a single mass email.

Find the widget under Event > Communicate > Emails > Scheduled Emails when creating emails for Attendees and RSVP Attending Guests.

Export delivery reports in your preferred time zone

When exporting email delivery reports, choose whether delivery times should follow the event time zone or your local time zone.

This keeps delivery activity easier to interpret when your team and events span different regions.

Keep RSVP responses accurate

Email security scanners can click links before recipients do, which can sometimes turn an automated security check into an unintended RSVP.

With Require RSVP Confirmation on Website, an RSVP button in an email takes the guest to the event website to confirm their selection. The response is recorded only after this confirmation, preventing automated link scanners from registering an RSVP on the guest’s behalf.

The setting is enabled by default and can be managed from Registrations > RSVP > Configuration.

Exhibitor enhancements

We’ve brought related exhibitor information closer together and made it easier to search exhibitor records and manage booths from the floor plan.

Manage exhibitors from a unified side pane

The redesigned exhibitor side pane keeps exhibitor and booth management in one workspace, with a persistent summary of the company, primary contact, booth type, booth ID, and booth size.

Exhibitor Details covers company and contact information, while Manage Booth brings together booth details, members, benefits, Exhibitor Pro benefits, and add-ons. You can also assign or add a booth and switch booth types during assignment.

Use Exhibitor Profile to manage how the exhibitor appears on the event website, Notes for internal follow-ups, and Activities to see what changed, who made the change, and when.

Search and filter exhibitors with custom field responses

Advanced Search includes custom fields from Exhibitor Request Forms alongside built-in exhibitor fields, helping you find exhibitors using the information collected specifically for your event.

The search operators and filtering behavior used in Registrations also apply to Exhibitor Requests and Exhibitors. When exporting, choose All exhibitors or Current view to export only the records that match your filters.

Hide abstract topics from your event website

Sometimes a topic has served its purpose, but the submissions associated with it still need to stay intact.

Instead of deleting a topic, you can hide it from the website submission widget while preserving its existing submissions. This works well when submissions for a particular topic have closed or when you want to keep test topics out of sight.

Go to Abstract > Abstract Topics > More Actions to hide or unhide a topic. Organizers can still submit abstracts manually for hidden topics.

From AI-assisted creation and attendee support to clearer emails, accurate RSVPs, smoother exhibitor workflows, and more control over abstracts, these updates are all about reducing the little things that slow you down.

That wraps up August and September. Give these updates a try, and stay tuned for what we’re building next.