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Do you currently run or plan to run events that need to accept bookings, such as seminars, training classes, not-for-profit fundraisers, social 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 or participate?

Managing event bookings can be a complex and time-consuming process. You may need to co-ordinate event schedules, available dates and seating allocations, attendee numbers, data entry, collecting payments and sending invoices, confirmations, reminders, cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and providing tickets to event attendees.

There are lots of benefits to setting up an online event registration system. It can make your business more efficient, save time and lower expenses, help you easily copy settings for previous events, give you more control, create a better client experience and grow your sales.

The problem is that this can be quite expensive.

Fortunately, if you own a WordPress-powered site, you can download and install an inexpensive and professional online event registration solution.

Presenting …

Event Espresso

Plugin Description

The Event Espresso online event registration WordPress software lets you easily set up your event and start processing registrations in minutes.

(Set up multiple events and accept online registrations with Event Espresso)

Event Espresso is a feature-rich application that gives you full control over the event registration management process.

Event Espresso lets you customize event registration forms

You can use various event registration strategies, from simple online enrollments and straight up selling tickets, to setting up custom registration forms in order to better understand your attendees, or integrating your event registration forms with social media and email marketing applications.

View detailed information about your event attendees

Please Note: At the time of writing this review, Event Espresso provides two different versions of their plugin: EE 3 and EE 4. The new Event Espresso 4 is considerably different than the older EE 3, as it has been revamped using a different structure to allow for future expansion. The EE 4 plugin software has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and price. The company plans to eventually retire Event Espresso 3, so keep this in mind as you read more about the benefits and advantages of this plugin.

More info:

• Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticket Manager

Plugin Benefits

Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your website:

Automated Event Registration Management And Ticketing System

Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your current website or blog into an automated and fully featured event management site … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to seating limits, multiple price options and discount codes, to printable tickets and even seating charts.

Increased Business Productivity

By using an online event registration system like Event Espresso, you save time and increase your business productivity by literally doing away with the need to process registrations manually.

Basically, you are making it easier for event attendees to complete the enrollment process on their own.

Allowing your enrollees to do the data themselves frees up your time and lets you concentrate more energy on creating a memorable event.

Complete Control Over The User Experience

As you will soon see, Event Espresso gives you complete control over the event management and booking process that you want your clients to experience.

Additional benefits and advantages include:

• Lower Costs: Event Espresso is an inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to developing your own system or using a 3rd party service. The cost is kept to a minimum through a model where Event Espresso users purchase the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and then buy addons only if you need extra features.
• Increased Sales: Event Espresso allows you to accept new event sign-ups 24/7. In addition, Event Espresso social sharing and marketing features (see below) let people interested in registering for your event share your information with others who may also be interested.
• Green Event Booking Process: With Event Espresso, the event sign-up process is kept entirely online, significantly reducing typical paper waste from tasks related to enrollment.
• Own Your Information. You own all the data obtained from event participants.

Plugin Features

Event Espresso provides functionality to its customers via built-in features (these come with the plugin) and optional features that users can buy for an extra cost, called add-ons.

Event Espresso offers many features to WP users. Here are just some:

• Fast and easy to install and use. Ready to use in no time.
• Custom Event Registration Form. Event Espresso lets you gather unique information using a custom event registration form on your web site to plan a great experience for your customers.
• Customizable Event Page Designs. You can customize your events and bookings page using Event Espresso’s unlimited template options and components, and HTML and/or CSS.
• Ticket Selector. Present several ticket options to prospective attendees so they can choose the ticket(s) that best suits their needs.
• Smart Single Page Checkout. The Event Espresso 4 checkout process is smart, fast and intuitive. Registrants are given the option to automatically copy the primary registrant’s information for any additional attendees.
• Default Price Types. Price types let event managers create new prices that adjust the default ticket pricing for your system-default ticket.
• Discount Codes. You can leverage promotion and multiple discount codes to encourage visitors to take action without delays, or make your offers more affordable for price-sensitive prospects. This is also practical if you want to sell out events close to timelines.
• Manual Registration. you have the option of booking event attendees when they show up, or sending in paper forms for manual submission later.
• No-Ticket Events. You can set up events without the requirement for registrants to get tickets. Event Espresso can be used for all kinds of events, not only those that require tickets.
• Private Contact Notes. Record comments about event registrants on their profile and how you’ve assisted them. Private commenting helps you keep records of when event attendees contacted you, your internal observations, and how you’ve interacted with your customers.
• Draft (status) Events. Draft events let you build an event page at your own leisure without displaying it live on your site. You can continue editing your event pages until you are ready to take things live, or schedule your event pages to publish at a future date and time.
• Your Organization Settings. you can configure your organization’s profile to be deployed throughout Event Espresso and your WP themes. Organization data include: organization name, street address, city, state, country, zip/postal code, primary contact email address, telephone number, tax number, logo, Facebook profile URL, Twitter profile URL, LinkedIn URL, Pinterest profile URL, Google+ profile URL, Instagram profile URL.
• Default Tickets. If you create identical tickets for your events, you can set one of those tickets as your default ticket for the next time you create an event simply by checking a box.
• WP WYSIWYG Editor. Event Espresso uses the standard WordPress Visual editor, allowing you to quickly and easily insert graphic images and create your content without knowledge of HTML or CSS, just like any WordPress post or page.
• Event Espresso Community. Event Espresso provides users with access to a community of experienced event managers, developers, web designers, online marketers and business owners who also use the software. You can engage with other Event Espresso users via their community chat room, support forums, job board, and social media pages on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Google+.
• Staff Member Manager. Save time and stay organized by reusing staff member profiles for multiple events or displaying their profile using a shortcode in any event description.
• Event Posts. Publish your events using pages or posts and take advantage of WordPress custom post type features such as custom fields, post meta data, taxonomies, etc. You can also customize the page templates to display event information in your own custom way.

Additional features include:

• Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). Event Espresso is simple enough for most WP users, and also extremely robust and customizable for enterprise-level users and developers. The bottom line is that by using OOP, EE 4 facilitates more complex extensions and customizations to the plugin.
• Maintenance Mode. Pause registrations for normal website traffic whenever you need to perform maintenance on your site. You can continue to work on your content during maintenance mode.
• Autonomy, Flexibility & Value: Event Espresso states on their website that their mission 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 modular and highly effective model that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money as a result.

The premium version of Event Espresso also includes over 40 additional features, including:

• Email shortcodes that includes participant data in emails and email newsletters.
• Default surcharge (the same as applying a service tax to every ticket).
• Default payment status.

Addons

As mentioned earlier, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow software users to significantly expand the capabilities of the event management system.

Some of these add-ons include:

• Events Vector Maps Template Add-on: The Vector Maps custom events list template lets you display all upcoming events by location. There are four maps available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
• Recurring Events Drop-down Template Add-on: The Recurring Events Drop-down custom template lets you organize events with many datetimes into a dropdown list.
• Events Date Range Template Addon: The Date Range custom event list template lets your users to search for events that occur within a certain date range.
• EE4 Events Social Sharing Addon: This add on adds social sharing features to the end of your Event Espresso “thank you” page that lets your registrants to share a message about their event registration on Twitter and Facebook after registration.
• Custom Template Add-on: The Custom Template addon can display your event lists in a variety of exciting and interesting ways.
• Seating Chart Add on: The seating chart add-on is for venues and events that sell and reserve seats for attendees in advance. This is perfect for venues and events such as theaters, concert halls, play houses, sports arenas and stadiums. The Seating Chart add-on allows you to offer reserved or assigned seating to your events and venues right from your WordPress site. The Seating Chart add on lets you manage the experience for your customers and design assigned seating charts and attach a single price to each seat.
• Event Ticketing Add-on: The Ticketing addon adds the ability to generate tickets with bar codes. The Bar Scanning add on adds the capacity to scan ticket barcodes. The ticketing add-on includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple barcode types are included for handling check-in scans at the door. Attendees can either print out their tickets or display them on their mobile devices. The mobile app can be used for checking in or checking out registrants and to validate tickets.
• EE4 Events Table Template Addon: The Events Table Template add on gives event managers an easy-to-use system that allows you to change the look and feel of your event lists. It comes with a simple table template with category filters, table search, table paging and more. It also lets developers build custom templates using one of the included templates as a base template.
• Infusionsoft Integration Add-on: With the Event Espresso 4 Infusionsoft integration all-in-one sales and marketing software addon, you can completely automate your customer relations and email marketing campaigns to seamlessly capture event attendee data, track enrollments, and accept payments from your website.

Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to its software, including new addons.

For complete details about the latest Event Espreso features and addons, visit the plugin website here:

• Event Espresso – WordPress Event Registration & Ticketing Manager System

Customer Feedback

Below are some of the testimonials that satisfied customers have written about Event Espresso:

”Tri-South, Inc is using Event Espresso to manage the course catalog, event ticketing, and class registration. [As their developer] I have customized a few items to make the site and plugin a seamless integration. The client is very pleased!” Jenifer Design

”…it really does blow everything else that’s out there out of the water.” Chris Reynolds, Arcane Palette Creative Design

”Thank you, we just did 2 sell out seminars of 50 attendees in 48 hours using Event Espresso and it was awesome. My wife was able to pick up on the processing backend with ease. You have done a great job on getting this system together – very simple, clear and well laid out With powerful functionality. I am so glad I dumped the old booking application we had and gave Event Espresso a go. Just wanted to say thanks, and thanks for the very patient, friendly and speedy assistance in helping me to get it all set up at the start. Many thanks to you and your team. A grateful customer.” Nicholas de Castella, Emotional Intelligence Trainings

Plugin Tips

Whether you are a gym owner, presenter, concert promoter, or event management consultant, there are simply unlimited possibilities of what you can do with the Event Espresso plugin.

After purchasing the plugin and becoming a registered owner, spend a little time going through the user forum for new ideas and practical ways to streamline your event management and registration process and improve the experience of your registrants.

Support

Event Espresso is fully compatible with other WP plugins and WordPress themes that follow standard WP development rules. If you have problems with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides excellent end-user support, as many of its clients attest:

”No complaints here. Satisfied customer. You can teach us all few things about customer service. Thanks!” Charles

The plugin provides exceptional support including access to support forums, in-depth online documentation with faqs, knowledge base and how tos, custom development 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.

Additionally, Event Espresso boasts a well-staffed team of experienced WordPress web developers with a proven track record of support, so this is definitely a solution you can rely on to run your events.

Plugin Cost

Event Espresso is available in different editions, including a FREE basic edition (called Event Espresso Decaf). For personal support and advanced software functionality, however, you need to consider downloading one of the premium plugin editions below:

• Personal License – This enables you to set up Event Espresso on one domain only. It includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
• Everything License Edition – This license option allows you to run Event Espresso on 1 domain only. Price includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium addons and 1 year of upgrades and support. Cost = $279.95.
• Developer Licensing – This license enables you to configure Event Espresso on 5 sites. Includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $249.95.

Pricing details of the Event Espresso plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the plugin sells for the amounts shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Management & Registration Software For WordPress

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 developer when you visit the website.

Event Espresso – Additional Info

The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to its plugin. Make sure to register for their newsletter when you visit their site to receive the latest information and updates.

Search the software’s online documentation tools to find answers to common questions about setup and using Event Espresso, and visit the support forums for questions related to your specific use-case, or to report problems and leave feedback.

For all installation and support documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso website.

The Bottom Line

Event Espresso is the preferred WordPress event registration and ticketing manager plugin, used by thousands of users.

If you are a WordPress site owner and you currently run any event that requires managing dates, times and venues, registering participants, or reserving tickets or seating, then you will probably not find a better plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.

For more information, visit the plugin website: Event Espresso – WordPress Event Management & Ticket Registration Software

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