Does your organization currently run or plan to run events that require managing registrations, such as seminars, training courses, not-for-profit fundraisers, networking conferences, or even a big event such as a concert, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to book to attend?
Co-ordinating event registrations is a complex process. You have to manage calendar schedules, event dates, attendee numbers, data processing and storage, collecting payments and sending invoices, confirmations, reminders and notifications, cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and issuing tickets to event registrants.
There are a number of benefits to setting up an online event registration system. It can make your business more efficient, save time and reduce costs, help you easily reproduce previous events, give you more control, create a better customer experience and grow your sales.
The problem is that setting this up can be quite costly.
Fortunately, if you run a WordPress-based website, you can easily install an inexpensive and highly professional online event booking solution.
Announcing …
Event Espresso
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration WP plugin lets you easily schedule your event and start processing bookings in a few minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and process online event registrations)
Event Espresso is a versatile and feature-packed software that gives you complete control of your event registration management process.
Create custom registration forms
You can employ various event registration strategies, from simple online registration and straight up ticket sales, to creating custom registration forms for collecting detailed information about your participants, or integrating your event registration forms with social media and email marketing software.
Access detailed information about your event attendees
Please Note: At the time of writing this review, Event Espresso supports two different versions of their plugin: EE 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new Event Espresso 4 is significantly different than the older Event Espresso 3, as the platform has been revamped using a different structure to accommodate future expansion. The EE 4 plugin platform has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and price. The developers aim to eventually retire Event Espresso 3, so keep this in mind as you learn more about the benefits and features of this plugin.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your website or blog:
Hands-Free Event Registration Management And Ticketing System
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your existing website into a fully-featured and automated event management website … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to maximum seating limits, multiple pricing options and discount codes, to printable tickets and even seating charts.
Increased Business Productivity
By using a web-based event registration system like Event Espresso, you save time and improve your business productivity by literally doing away with the need to process registrations and bookings manually.
Essentially, you are making it easier for participants to perform the registration on their own.
Allowing your participants to do all of the data entry frees you up from doing admin work and lets you direct more energy on delivering a memorable event.
More Control Over The User Experience
As you will learn in a moment, Event Espresso gives you more control over the event management and registration process that you want your users to experience.
Some additional plugin benefits include:
- Lower Costs: Event Espresso provides you with a very inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to other options or using a third-party provider. This is made possible through a model where users start with the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and buy add ons only when you need added functionality.
- More Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept new event bookings 24/7. Not only that, but, Event Espresso social sharing and marketing add ons (see below) let people interested in attending your event invite others who may also be interested.
- Green Event SignUp Process: With Event Espresso, the event booking process can be transacted entirely in digital form, significantly reducing typical paper waste from tasks related to enrollment.
- All Data Belongs To You. You own all the data obtained from event attendees.
Features
The Event Espresso plugin provides functionality to users through standard features (these come with the plugin) and optional features that you can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides many unique built-in to web site owners. Here are just some:
- Quick and simple to install and implement. Be up and running in no time.
- Customized Event Registration. Event Espresso lets you collect specific data using a custom event registration form on your site to prepare a tailored experience for your attendees.
- WordPress Event Calendar. Participants can easily see your events and add these to their schedule with the WordPress calendar.
- Tax Administration Options. Event Espresso 4 gives you several options to manage taxes for an event and report tax fee components to customers when purchasing tickets. Event managers can configure taxes globally or on a per-ticket basis.
- Custom Post Types. You can Event Espresso into your WordPress theme and reuse events data throughout other areas of your site.
- Default Prices. Set up events fast with pre-configured system-default ticket prices.
- Mobile Ticketing Apps. The Event Espresso mobile registration system enables you to authenticate tickets, speed up in-venue registrations, create various check-in “stations” and track attendees.
- Contact Profiles & Contact List. Event Espresso 4 provides you with the tools to understand who your customers are and how they’ve done business with you.
- Event Manager Pre-approval. Be selective about who can and cannot participate in your events.
- XML RSS Event Feeds. Keep your customers updated about your events, bring in more visitors and reach a wider number of potential customers with the built-in XML RSS events feed.
- Draft (status) Events. Draft events allow you to develop your event over multiple sessions without displaying it live on your website. You can work on your event pages until you are ready to go live, or schedule to publish your event at a later date and time.
- Easy Event Management. Event Espresso puts you in complete control of all aspects of your event’s registration and ticketing, and lets you automate this process with event management tools that include staff and venue manager, custom event page designs, payment processing, list waiting, limits on attendees, print-ready tickets and more.
- Upload Events. Event Espresso 4 provides an advanced importing feature that lets you easily import a lot of event data all at one time. You can export, edit and import data for events, datetimes, ticketing details, pricing, custom registration questions, venue info, terminology, taxonomies, term relationships and more.
- Event Venue Manager. The venue management feature in EE 4 allows details about venues to be published throughout the Event Espresso admin and the front end of your website to inform site visitors of the location of your event. The venue profile displays many of the standard WordPress settings such as tags, categories, discussion settings, comments, etc., but also displays details like venue capacity, venue site URL, venue phone number, venue location details, Google map, etc. You can also list venues throughout specific parts of your WordPress theme and on a venue listing page on your site where you can set up and publish venue profiles for multiple events or display every event you have booked for a given venue.
- Registrant Records. Manage your customer’s profile information and payment history and keep all of their information organized and easily within reach.
- Invoice Payment Reminders. Follow-up potential event customers who have not paid yet for their admission with a standard but personalized PDF invoice with one click. Your invoices will reference pre-registered attendees who have not paid their registration yet by name, give them the amount they owe, and include a link to the event details, a payment url and a link to download a PDF invoice.
- Categorize Events. If you have a number of types of events such as free and paid, workshops and breakout sessions, different kinds of courses, etc. you can categorize these to make it easier for event attendees to find what they’re searching for. You can list all events in a category on an event category page, make all events searchable by category, and color-code your events on the Event Espresso events calendar to make them easier to find, in addition to suggesting new events in the categories that interest your visitors.
Additional features include:
- Hooks, Actions & Filters. These features allow you to implement safer and more reliable customizations and extensions to the Event Espresso software that are compatible with WordPress.
- Maintenance Mode. Pause registrations for regular site visitors whenever you need to perform maintenance on your site. You can still work on your content during maintenance mode.
- Autonomy, Flexibility & Value For Money: According to the philosophy stated on their website, Event Espresso’s objective is to “empower business and organization leaders with the event registration, ticketing and management tools that maximize the success of events.” To achieve their goals, the software has been built using a model that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money as a result.
The premium edition of Event Espresso also comes with 40+ added features, including:
- Duplicating events – eliminates the need to re-enter event details when creating new events.
- Default surcharge (similar to applying a service tax to all tickets).
- Category titles and descriptions on event listing pages.
Event Espresso Add-Ons
As mentioned earlier, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow customers to further expand the capabilities of events.
Some of these add-ons include:
- Events Grid Template Add on: Displays events in a pure CSS grid-like structure using the featured image. Hovering over the image will display further information. If the event does not have a featured image available, it will use a default image.
- Recurring Events Management Add-on: The Recurring Events manager addon lets you put events on autopilot by scheduling recurring events weeks or months in advance. You can add as many events in the future as you want. Event Espresso will then automatically open and close bookings for all recurring events.
- Events Calendar Table Template Addon: The Calendar Table template is a list template with a bold date and customizable “register now” button. The template can be customized to display the event thumbnail instead of a date.
- Social Coupons Integration Add on: If your website is featured on Groupon.com you can easily accept Groupon codes to your events. You can even specify whether events accept the social coupons or not.
- Custom Files Addon: The Custom Files add-on provides PHP files that let you override certain aspects of the Event Espresso plugin.
- Roles And Permissions Basic And Pro Add-on Versions: This addon lets you involve other users in your organization to help manage your events and give new users permission to create events or regional managers permission to manage events. The Roles and Permissions Basic add-on allows you to manage & customize the WP users roles and allow them different permissions with different capabilities, so your staff can help you manage your events or events that others create. You can customize roles so that users do not have access to certain parts of your WordPress dashboard and/or certain parts of your Event Espresso settings. If you’d like to create geographic regions for other people to manage events, use the Roles and Permissions Pro add on.
- Multi-Event Registration Addon: The Multiple Event registration add-on gives your potential customers the ability to book multiple events at once. In each event listing registrants will be given the option to either register for a single event or add multiple events to their cart. With the Multi-Event Registration addon, attendees can register for several events at once and even add additional attendees to any of the same events in the same checkout process.
- EE4 Events Calendar Add-on: This add on uses the WP calendar to display events and categories of events in an attractive graphical calendar.
- MailChimp Integration Add on: The MailChimp addon allows you to auto-register attendees to a specified autoresponder list or group within your MailChimp account.
Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to its plugin, including new add-ons.
For full details about the newest Event Espreso features and add-ons, visit the plugin website here:
Testimonials
Here are some of the many great testimonials that customers have written about Event Espresso:
”Event Espresso rocks! I use it for my dance class registrations. Unlike most dance studios where people have to call or send an email in advance, Event Espresso puts a registration form right there in front of the user and allows me to collect valuable information from the user during the registration process with custom questions such as “Do you have previous dance experience?” or “How did you hear about us?”. It also gives my site a professional look and feel.” Ral, Ral’eau Salsa Dance Company
”I have to say that it has been the right choice for me…I’ve been extremely pleased with the way my site is working.” Robin, RobinTime
”Just bought an Event Espresso license for an upcoming conference website we are working on. The custom registration forms functionality rocks!” Eric Sopp, Inside Design
Useful Tips
Whether you are a motivational speaker, presenter, festival promoter, or event professional, there are simply unlimited possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso plugin.
After purchasing your copy of the plugin and becoming a registered owner, go through the forums for tips and practical suggestions to streamline your event management and registration workflow or enhance the experience of your event registrants.
Plugin Support
Event Espresso works with with other WP plugins and themes that follow standard WordPress coding guidelines. If you experience issues with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides great end-user support, as so many of its end-users confirm:
”No complaints here. Satisfied customer. You can teach us all few things about customer service. Thanks!” Charles
The software provides exceptional support including access to support forums, in-depth online documentation with faqs, knowledgebase and how tos, one-on-one support and even a monthly VIP member pass that gives you access to community of developers, designers, event managers, publishers and webmasters that use Event Espresso tools, plus faster support response times.
In addition, Event Espresso boasts a well-staffed team of experienced WordPress developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely software you can rely on to organize and manage your events.
Product License Pricing
Event Espresso is available in a range of editions, including a FREE basic edition (referred to as Event Espresso Decaf). For personal support and advanced plugin options, however, you will want to consider purchasing one of the paid plugin versions below:
- Personal License – This license lets you set up Event Espresso on 1 site only. Pricing includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything Licensing – This enables you to set up Event Espresso on one domain only. Cost includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add-ons and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $279.95.
- Developer Edition – This allows you to run Event Espresso on five domains. Includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $249.95.
Price details for the Event Espresso plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the software sells for the amounts shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Espresso
Please Note: The above reflects the pricing when this review was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin author when you visit the site.
Additional Plugin Information
The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to the plugin. Make sure to register for their newsletter when you visit their site to receive the latest information and updates.
Look up the software’s documentation tools for answers to common questions about setting up and how to use Event Espresso, and the support forums for questions related to your particular situation, or to report bugs and share feedback.
For detailed installation and support documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso website.
We Recommend
Event Espresso is the leading WP event booking and ticketing manager plugin, used and trusted by thousands of companies.
If you are a WordPress user and you currently run events that involve managing dates, times and venues (offline and online), registering attendees, and booking tickets or seating, then you will probably not find a better software for your needs than Event Espresso.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Event Espresso – WordPress Event Registration & Ticket Manager System
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