Zoho Backstage - February 2026 Updates

February 2026 brings a major new addition and a collection of enhancements across Zoho Backstage for event planning and management (Abstract Management in early access).

• Abstract Management (Early access): Manage calls for papers and speaker submissions
• Abstract Projects: Create and configure projects for calls for content with name, description, and submission dates
• Automatic submission open and close based on configured timeline
• Abstract Topics: Group abstracts into tracks or themes
• Custom submission forms using form builder to collect descriptions, author information, files, and other data
• Reviewer assignment and management
• Blind review capability for fair evaluation
• Define scoring criteria for consistent reviewer assessment
• Convert approved submissions to sessions with single action
• Automatic details carried over from submission to session
• Submission tracking across the process
• Centralized content library for uploaded files
• Automated notifications for submission actions
• WhatsApp Delivery Report: Track delivery status of WhatsApp messages from event console
• View message details such as name, template used, sent, delivered, read, or failed status
• Detailed delivery information per participant including phone number and delivery status
• Failure reason display for failed messages
• Filters based on delivery status, automated triggers, and notifications
• Search messages by participant phone number and country code
• Exhibitor meeting request approval: Exhibitors can manually confirm or deny meeting requests
• Disable Auto-accept meeting request option in Exhibitor Space > Meetings
• Meeting requests appear as pending when auto-accept is disabled
• Booth members review and confirm or deny requests
• Automatic notifications sent for meeting requested, meeting confirmed, meeting denied, meeting canceled, and meeting reminder actions
• Countdown section: Add customizable countdown timers to event website pages
• Multiple countdown layout options
• Configure countdown based on event start date, ticket sales dates, or custom dates
• Undo and Redo support for website editing
• Change history maintained until browser tab refresh
• Auto-navigate to changed page when undoing or redoing changes
• Cloning website pages: Duplicate pages with all sections and configurations
• Cloning website sections: Duplicate sections within same page or different pages
• Lead Source Tracking: Attribution fields show how leads were generated
• Source field shows badge scan, manual entry, meeting booking, enquiry submission, or resource download
• Added By field identifies booth member who captured lead or system-generated status
• Lead source visible across web app, mobile app, and exports
• Lead source usable as filter in lead list
• Updated WhatsApp template guidelines: Align with latest Meta guidelines for WhatsApp Business messaging
• Availability: WhatsApp Delivery Report, Exhibitor meeting request approval, and Lead Source Tracking included in Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate plans