Does your organization currently run or plan to run events that need to accept bookings, such as workshops, training courses, non-profit fund raisers, social events, or even a large-scale event like a dance party, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to register to attend or participate?
Co-ordinating event registrations is a complicated and time-consuming process. You will probably have to co-ordinate scheduling, date availability, attendee numbers, data processing, payment processing and sending invoices, confirmations, reminders and alerts, cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and issuing tickets to attendees.
There are a number of benefits to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can make your business more efficient, save time and lower expenses, help you easily reproduce previous events, give event managers more control, create a more enjoyable client experience and increase your sales.
The problem is that setting up an online event booking system can be very expensive.
Fortunately, if you own a WordPress-based digital presence, you can easily install a very inexpensive and professional web-based event registration solution.
Introducing …
Event Espresso – WordPress Event Manager And Registration Software
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin allows you to easily set up an event and start accepting bookings in just a few minutes.
(Set up multiple events and receive online event bookings with Event Espresso)
Event Espresso is a flexible and feature-rich software that gives you complete control of your event registration management process.
Event Espresso lets you customize registration forms
You can employ multiple event registration strategies, from simple online registration and straight up selling tickets, to setting up custom registration forms in order to better understand your event attendees, or integrating your event registration forms with an autoresponder system for ongoing updates.
Access detailed information about event attendees
Note: Currently, Event Espresso offers two different versions of their software: EE 3 and EE 4. The new Event Espresso 4 is significantly different than the older Event Espresso 3, as the platform has been rebuilt using a different structure to allow for future expansion. The Event Espresso 4 plugin software has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and price. The company plans to eventually migrate completely to Event Espresso 4, so keep this in mind as you read more about this plugin.
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Benefits Of Using Event Espresso
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your site:
Hands-Free Event Registration Management
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your current website or blog into a fully-featured event management site … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to attendee limits, multiple price options and discount codes, to printable tickets and seating charts.
Higher Business Productivity
By using a web-based event registration system like Event Espresso, you save time and increase your business productivity by virtually doing away with the chore of processing registrations manually.
Basically, you are enabling participants to perform the registration on their own.
Allowing your attendees to do all of the data entry frees you up from doing admin work and lets you invest more of your energy on planning a better event.
More Control Over The User Experience
As you will discover in a moment, Event Espresso gives you full control over the event management and booking process that you want your customers to experience.
Additional plugin benefits include:
- Less Costs: The Event Espresso plugin gives you a very inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to other options or using a third party provider. This is made possible by using a model where users purchase the core plugin (which suits the needs of most users) and then purchase optional addons only if you need new functionality.
- Higher Sales: Event Espresso allows you to accept online event signups outside traditional business hours. In addition, Event Espresso social and marketing add ons (see below) let people interested in registering for your event invite their friends who may be interested.
- Green & Paperless Event Sign Up Process: With Event Espresso, the event registration process remains entirely in digital form, significantly reducing typical paper consumption from tasks related to enrollment.
- Own Your Information. You control all the information you obtain from event attendees.
Plugin Features
The Event Espresso plugin delivers functionality to users via built-in features (these are included with the software) and optional features that users can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides many features to WP users. Here are just some of these:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Ready to start using in no time.
- Multiple Ticket And Pricing Options. Event Espresso allows you to configure as many types of tickets as you need and set prices, ticket quantity limits, etc.
- WordPress Event Calendar. Registrants can easily find your upcoming events and add these to their schedule using the WordPress calendar.
- Collect Payments. Event Espresso seamlessly integrates with several payment gateways, enabling you to collect money before running events.
- Custom Post Types. You can Event Espresso into your theme and display contact data throughout other areas of your site.
- Default Prices. Set up events fast with pre-configured default prices.
- In-App Documentation Systems. Event Espresso 4 includes three useful in-app documentation systems: Help Tours, Help Tabs and Tool Tips.
- Event Check-In List. Generate a list of event participants and check-in everyone who has attended.
- Ticketless Events. You can list events without the requirement for participants to book tickets. Event Espresso can be used for all forms of events, not just those that accept tickets.
- Public Commenting. Add “social proof” by allowing potential attendees to ask questions about your event and past customers to post feedback that can help others choose whether or not to sign up. Moderation settings for commenting are configured via the WordPress commenting section.
- Optimized For The Latest Version Of WP. The EE 4 user interface follows the WordPress guidelines to help you create aesthetically beautiful event pages that are responsive and mobile-friendly.
- Your Organization Settings. Configure your organization’s profile to be deployed throughout the software and your WP themes. Organization data include: organization name, address, city, state, country, zip/postal code, email address, phone, VAT/tax number, business logo, Facebook profile URL, Twitter profile URL, LinkedIn URL, Pinterest profile URL, Google+ URL, Instagram profile URL.
- Import Event Data. Event Espresso 4 provides an advanced importing feature that allows you to upload bulk event data all at one time. You can export, edit and import information about events, datetimes, ticketing information, prices, registration questions, venues, terms, taxonomies, term relationships and more.
- WYSIWYG Editor. Event Espresso uses the standard WordPress WYSIWYG editor, so you can quickly and easily add graphic images and format your event descriptions without knowledge of HTML or CSS, just like any WordPress post.
- A Community Of Event Experts. Event Espresso lets you interact with a community of experienced event managers, web developers, web designers, online marketers and businesses who also use the plugin. You can interact with other Event Espresso users via their community chat room, user support forums, job board, and social media discussions on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Google+.
- Invoice Payment Reminders. Follow-up potential registrants who have not paid yet for their registration with a standard but personalized PDF invoice with one click. Your invoices will address registered attendees who have not paid their registration in full by name, display the balance owing, and include links to the event, a payment link and a url to download a PDF invoice.
- Categorize Events. If you have several different event types like free and paid, conference speakers and mastermind sessions, different kinds of exercise classes, etc. you can categorize these to make it easier for your participants to find what they’re looking for. You can display all the events in a category on a custom 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 other events in the categories that appeal to your visitors.
Extra features include:
- Define Extra Meta Information. This allows you to have more control and options over your content and how your information displays to readers.
- Maintenance Mode. You can pause registrations for regular website visitors when you need to carry out maintenance on your site. You can still work on the back-end of your site during maintenance mode.
- Autonomy, Flexibility And Value For Money: 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 model that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money as a result.
The premium edition of Event Espresso also provides you with over 40 added features, including:
- Live-filtering when searching for events in the Event Espresso admin.
- Default surcharge (similar to applying a service fee to all tickets).
- Option to skip the confirmation page during registration.
Add-Ons
As mentioned earlier, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow users to significantly expand the functionality of events.
Some of these add-ons include:
- Events Vector Maps Template Add on: The Vector Maps custom events list template lets you display scheduled events by location. There are 4 maps available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Recurring Events Manager Addon: The Recurring Events management add-on enables you to put your events on autopilot by scheduling repeated events weeks or months … even years ahead. You can create as many events in the future as you like. Event Espresso will then automatically open and close registrations for all of these recurring events.
- Events Date Range Template Add on: The Date Range custom event list template lets your users to search for events that take place in a certain date range.
- Social Coupons Integration Addon: If your website uses Groupon.com you can easily accept Groupon codes to your events. You can also specify whether events accept the social coupons or not.
- WP User Integration: The WP User Integration add-on allows you to take full advantage of the WP user system. With the WP User Integration add-on you can give users a special incentive by offering member pricing and overriding event prices when your members are logged in. You can even set up member-only events where only registered site users can have access to these special events. Members can also add personal details into their profile page allowing them fast registration for events by auto-filling in the personal information on the event booking form. Your users can also view event history and pay for events.
- 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 ideal 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 site. The Seating Chart addon lets you manage the environment for your attendees and design assigned seating charts and attach a single price to each seat.
- EE4 Event Ticketing Add on: The Ticketing add on adds the ability to create tickets with bar codes. The Bar Scanning add on gives you the capacity to scan ticket bar codes. The ticketing add-on includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple bar code types are included for managing check-in scans at the door. Attendees can either print out their tickets or display them on their mobile devices. The barcode scanner can be used for checking in or checking out registrants and to validate tickets.
- EE4 Events Table View Template Add-on: The Events Table Template addon provides you with an easy-to-use system that lets you modify the design of your event lists. It comes with a simple table template with category filters, table search, table paging and more. It also enables developers to build their own custom templates using one of the included templates as a base template.
- JSON API Add on: The Event Espresso JSON API add on gives permission for other applications, websites, mobile applications, etc… to access your Event Espresso content through an Application Programming Interface (API).
Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to the software, including new add ons.
For more details about the newest Event Espreso features and add ons, visit the plugin website here:
Customers – Feedback
Below are some of the many testimonials that customers have written about Event Espresso:
”Thanks to you and the rest of the team for Event Espresso – Every time I get a signup for an event, I think about how much time EE saves me – and signups happen while I’m out on the water teaching kayaking, not answering the phone. :-)” Tue Brems Olesen, OnAdventure
”Over the next 5-6 years we should be able to claim that we saved the company over $100,000 – Thanks Event Espresso!” David Waterman, KT Benefits & InkItDigital.com
”At first we looked at CVENT for one of our clients and they wanted $16,000 per year for 3000 event attendees + fees totaling $22k. That is before Staff and Webinar fees. Worst of all we had to prepay the $16k amount even if we never used all 3000 attendees. That was when we looked at Event Espresso and we realized we could build our own event system for less than 16K. For the most part we have been very satisfied with our decision. The real ROI will come next year when they don’t have to pay another 16k-22K! Over the next 5-6 years we should be able to claim that we saved the company over $100,000 – Thanks Event Espresso!” David Waterman (Long Version), KT Benefits & InkItDigital.com
Plugin Tips
Whether you are an education services provider, trainer, workshop promoter, or event management consultant, there are just countless possibilities of what you can do with the Event Espresso plugin.
After downloading your copy of the plugin and becoming a licensed user, visit the support forum for useful ideas and practical suggestions to improve your event management and registration process and enhance the experience of your event participants.
Support
Event Espresso works with with all WP plugins and themes that follow standard WordPress development guidelines. If you have problems with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides excellent support, as many of its satisfied users confirm:
“I’m really impressed with not only the application itself but the support. I have rarely seen such a responsive support staff than at EE. They rock…I highly recommend this plugin!” sock2me
The software provides incredible support including access to support forums, comprehensive online documentation with faqs, knowledge base and how tos, email 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.
In addition, Event Espresso boasts an established team of experienced web developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely a solution you can depend on to manage your events.
Software Price
Event Espresso is available in a number of plugin editions, including a FREE basic edition (referred to as Event Espresso Decaf). For support and advanced software options, however, you should consider purchasing one of the premium plugin versions below:
- Personal Licensing – This allows you to install Event Espresso on one domain only. Cost includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $69.95.
- Everything Edition – This lets you install Event Espresso on one domain only. Price includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add ons and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $279.95.
- Developer License – This lets you run Event Espresso on 5 sites. Price includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Cost = $249.95.
Pricing details of the Event Espresso plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the plugin is selling for the pricing shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticket Manager
Please Note: The above reflects the pricing when this article was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller when you visit the site.
Additional Information
Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to the software. 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 setup and using Event Espresso, and visit the support forums if you have questions related to your particular situation, or to report problems and leave feedback.
For all documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso product website.
The Bottom Line
Event Espresso is the preferred WordPress event registration and ticketing manager software, used by thousands of WP site owners.
If you own a WordPress-powered site and you plan to run an event that involves managing dates and venues, enrolling participants, and/or reserving tickets, then you will probably not find a better WordPress plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Event Espresso – WordPress Event Registration And Ticket Management Plugin
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