Does your business currently run or plan to run events that require handling bookings, such as seminars, training courses, not-for-profit fund-raisers, networking conferences, or even a big event like a trade show, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to book to attend or participate?
Co-ordinating event registrations can be a complex process. You have to manage event schedules, availability, participant numbers, data administration, payment processing and invoicing, confirmations and reservations, reminders, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and issuing tickets to participants.
There are a number of advantages to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can streamline your business processes, save time and reduce costs, help you easily replicate previously-run events, give event managers more control, improve user experience and increase your sales.
The problem is that this can be quite expensive.
The good news is that if you run a WordPress-powered web site, you can easily install a very inexpensive and professional web-based event booking solution.
Introducing …
Event Espresso – Event Management & Ticket Registration Software For WordPress
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin for WordPress allows you to easily create an event and start receiving online registrations literally in a few minutes.
(Set up multiple events and receive online event registrations with Event Espresso)
Event Espresso is a flexible and feature-packed application that gives you full control of the event registration management process.
Create custom registration forms
You can use several event registration strategies, from simple online bookings and straight up selling tickets, to creating custom registration forms for collecting detailed information about your participants, or integrating your event registration forms with social media sites like Facebook.
Access detailed information about event attendees
Note: At the time of writing this article, Event Espresso supports two different versions of their plugin: EE 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new Event Espresso 4 is considerably different than the older Event Espresso 3, as the software has been rebuilt using a different structure to accommodate future expansion. The EE 4 plugin software has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and price. The developers aim to eventually transition completely to EE 4, so keep this in mind as you read more about this plugin.
Go here to learn more:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your website or blog:
Hands-Free Event Registration Management
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your existing online presence into a fully-featured and automated event management site … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to seating capacity limits, multiple price levels and discount codes, to printable tickets and even seating charts.
Better Business Productivity
By using an online event registration solution like Event Espresso, you save time and increase your business productivity by literally doing away with the chore of processing registrations and bookings manually.
Essentially, you are making it easier for event attendees to register on their own.
Letting your clients to do all of the data entry frees up your time and lets you concentrate more of your attention on planning a memorable event.
Full Control Over The User Experience
As you will soon see, Event Espresso gives you full control over the event management and registration process that you want your participants to experience.
Some additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Lower Costs: Event Espresso is an inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to other options or using a 3rd party service provider. This is made possible by using a model where users purchase the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and then purchase optional add ons when you need extra features.
- Higher Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept online bookings 24/7. In addition, Event Espresso social sharing and marketing add-ons (see below) let people who are interested in attending your event share your information with friends who may also be interested in attending.
- Green Event SignUp Process: With Event Espresso, your event registration process can be completed wholly in digital form, reducing traditional paper waste from tasks associated with administration.
- All Data Belongs To You. You control all the information you obtain from event participants.
Features
The Event Espresso plugin provides functionality to its users via standard features (these are included with the plugin) and optional features that users can buy for an extra cost, called add-ons.
Event Espresso offers a number of features to website owners. Here are just some of these:
- Quick and simple to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- Multiple Ticket And Pricing Options. Event Espresso allows you to set up multiple ticket types and set unique pricing options, limits on ticket quantities, etc.
- Customizable Event & Registration Page Designs. Customize your events and signup page using Event Espresso’s limitless template options and components, as well as HTML or CSS.
- Collect Payments. Event Espresso integrates with payment gateways, enabling you to collect payments prior to running events.
- Custom Post Types. You can Event Espresso into your WordPress theme and reuse events information throughout other areas of your site.
- Spam Protection. Reduce the likelihood of spamming and bots creating false registrations on your web site by using reCAPTCHA settings that authenticate human activity.
- Mobile Ticketing Apps. The Event Espresso mobile registration system enables you to authenticate tickets, speed up in-venue registrations, create multiple check-in “stations” and track event participants.
- Manual Registration. you have the option of registering event participants when they show up, or send in paper forms for manual inputting later.
- Admin Pre-approval. Control who can and cannot register for your events.
- RSS Event Feeds. Automatically update your website readers, drive quality traffic and reach a wider audience with the built-in XML RSS events feed.
- Draft Events. Draft events let you build an event page in your own time-frame without publishing it to your website. You can work on your events until you are ready to publish it on your website, or schedule your event page to publish at a later time and date.
- Multi-Language Plugin. Event Espresso is is available in over 15 languages, and more are being added all the time.
- Exportable Information. You can output all the data collected from your event attendees into Excel or CSV format for creating reports, planning new marketing strategies, analyzing attendee statistics, etc..
- WYSIWYG Editor. Event Espresso uses the standard WP WYSIWYG editor, allowing you to quickly and easily insert images and compose and edit your content without having to know HTML or CSS, just like any WordPress post.
- A Community Of Event Experts. Event Espresso provides users with access to an expert community of event managers and other plugin users. You can network with other Event Espresso users through their community chat room, support forums, job board, and social media pages on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Google+.
- Staff Management. Save time and stay organized by reusing staff profiles for multiple events or displaying their profile using a shortcode in an event description.
- Event Posts. Publish your events using pages or posts and take advantage of WordPress custom post types. You can also customize the page templates to display event information in your own unique way.
Additional features include:
- Object-Oriented Programming. Event Espresso is simple enough for general users, and also extremely robust and customizable for higher end users and web developers. The bottom line is that by using Object-oriented programming (OOP), Event Espresso 4 enables more complex enhancements and customizations to the software.
- Maintenance Mode. You can pause registrations for regular site traffic whenever site maintenance is needed. You can still work on your content during maintenance mode.
- Flexibility, Autonomy And 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 mission, the software has been built using a modular and effective model that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money in the process.
The premium edition of Event Espresso also provides you with over 40 added features, including:
- Email shortcodes that includes attendee data in confirmation emails and email newsletters.
- Question groups that simplify the process of reusing a group of questions for similar events.
- Default payment status.
Add-Ons
As mentioned previously, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow customers to further expand the capabilities of your event management process.
Some of these add-ons include:
- Events Vector Maps Template Add-on: The Vector Maps custom events list template lets you display all scheduled events by location. There are 4 maps available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Recurring Events Drop-down Custom Template Addon: The Recurring Events Drop-down custom template organizes the events with multiple datetimes into a drop-down list.
- Events Date Range Template Add on: The Date Range custom event list template allows your users to search for events that take place 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 allows your registrants to share a message about their event registration on Twitter and Facebook after booking.
- Custom Files Add-on: The Custom Files add-on lets you override certain aspects of the Event Espresso plugin.
- 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 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 directly from your WordPress website. The Seating Chart add on lets you control the experience for your customers and design assigned seating charts and attach single pricing to each seat.
- Multiple Event Registration Addon: The Multiple Event registration addon gives potential attendees 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 Multiple Event Registration add-on, attendees can register for several events at once and even add additional attendees to any of the same events in the same checkout process.
- Events Calendar Add-on: This addon uses the WP calendar to display events and event categories in a nice graphical calendar.
- MailChimp Integration Addon: The MailChimp add-on allows you to automatically register attendees to a specific autoresponder list or group within MailChimp.
Note: The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to its plugin, including new add-ons.
For more information about the latest Event Espreso features and add ons, check out the plugin here:
User Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials that plugin users have posted about Event Espresso:
”My hope with this whole integration is to be able to show other school districts an affordable and easy solution to these registrations. I cannot believe how much money they are charged for less by other companies. This has the potential to save schools tens of thousands, which is huge right now.” Kelly, College Station Independent School District
”Customizing an Event Registration plugin for WordPress by @EventEspresso. Love the pro version. Highly Recommended!” Joshua Garity
”I am in love with your product, I work with many educational institutions that hold classes/events and I will definitely recommend this to all of them, the only time I have seen a system this comprehensive and sophisticated is when an organization I worked with paid a programmer nearly $8,000 for a custom solution, and yet still there are features in your registration system that his didn’t have. Thank you so much for your help and patience.” Abdullah J.
Useful Tips
Whether you are a motivational speaker, presenter, festival promoter, or event management consultant, there are just endless possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso software.
After downloading your copy of the plugin and becoming a licensed owner, spend a little time researching the user forum for inspiration and practical ways to improve your event management process and improve the experience of your event participants.
Support
Event Espresso is compatible with most WP plugins and WP themes that follow WordPress coding standards. If you experience issues with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides excellent technical support, as so many of its satisfied plugin users attest:
”No complaints here. Satisfied customer. You can teach us all few things about customer service. Thanks!” Charles
Event Espresso provides amazing support with access to a support forum, comprehensive online documentation with faqs, knowledge base and how tos, priority support and even a monthly VIP member pass giving 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 an established team of experienced WordPress developers with a proven track record of support, so this is definitely software you can count on to run and manage your events.
Product Price
Event Espresso is available in a range of plugin editions, including a FREE basic edition (called Event Espresso Decaf). For personal support and advanced software options, however, you need to consider downloading one of the ”Pro” plugin editions below:
- Personal License – This license enables you to set up Event Espresso on 1 site only. Pricing includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything License – This license lets you install Event Espresso on one site only. Price includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add-ons and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $279.95.
- Developer Licensing – This option enables you to set up Event Espresso on five sites. Pricing includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $249.95.
The cost of purchasing the Event Espresso plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the software is being retailed for the pricing shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Management And Ticketing Registration Plugin For WordPress
Note: The pricing above was current at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the site.
Event Espresso – Additional Info
Event Espresso regularly adds 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.
Use the plugin’s online documentation pages for answers to common questions about setting up and using Event Espresso, and the support forums for questions related to your particular situation, or to notify developers about bugs and share feedback.
For detailed documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso web site.
The Bottom Line
Event Espresso is the preferred WordPress event booking and ticketing manager plugin, used and trusted by thousands of event managers.
If you own a WordPress-powered site and you currently run an event that involves managing dates and venues, enrolling participants, or selling tickets or seating, then you will probably not find a better solution for your needs than Event Espresso.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: Event Espresso – WordPress Event Registration And Ticket Manager System
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