Does your organization currently run or plan to run events that need to accept bookings, such as seminars, group classes, charity fund-raisers, marketing functions, or even a big event such as a dance party, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to register to attend?
Managing event registrations can be a complex and time-consuming process. You will probably have to manage scheduling, event dates, participant numbers, data entry, payment processing and sending invoices, confirmations, reminders and alerts, cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special needs and providing tickets to participants.
There are many benefits to setting up an automated online event registration system. It can streamline your business processes, save time and lower costs, help you easily replicate similar events, give event managers more control, create a better client experience and grow your sales.
The problem is that setting up an online event registration system can be quite costly.
Fortunately, if you own a WordPress-powered web site, you can easily install a very inexpensive and professional web-based event booking system.
Introducing …
Event Espresso – Event Management And Registration System For WordPress
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin for WordPress lets you easily create your event and start receiving registrations in just minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and accept online bookings)
Event Espresso is a flexible and feature-packed application that gives you complete control of your event registration management process.
Customize your event registration forms
You can employ multiple event registration strategies, from simple online enrollments 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 sites like Facebook.
View detailed information about event attendees
Note: At the time of writing this review, Event Espresso provides two different versions of their plugin: Event Espresso 3 and EE 4. The new EE 4 is impressively different than the older Event Espresso 3, as the plugin is being redeveloped using a different structure to enable future growth. 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 learn more about this plugin.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits 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 digital presence into an automated and feature-rich event management site … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to seating limits, multiple price levels 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 chore of processing registrations manually.
Essentially, you are enabling participants to enroll by themselves.
Allowing your participants to do the data entry frees you up from doing admin work and lets you focus more attention on planning a memorable event.
Full Control Over The User Experience
As you will learn shortly, Event Espresso gives you full control over the event management process that you want your customers to experience.
Some additional benefits and advantages include:
- Reduced Costs: Event Espresso provides you with a very low cost online event registration management solution compared to other options or using a third-party provider. This is made possible through a model where you start with the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and purchase addons when you need added functionality.
- More Sales: Event Espresso lets you accept new event signups 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 others who may be interested in attending.
- Paperless Event Sign-Up Process: With Event Espresso, the event sign-up process remains wholly online, reducing typical paper consumption from tasks associated with admin and record-keeping.
- All Data Belongs To You. You control all the data gathered from event participants.
Features
Event Espresso delivers functionality to its customers via built-in features (these come with the software) and additional features that you can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides a number of great features to web site owners. Here are just some:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Ready to use in minutes.
- Multiple Times and Dates Per Event. In EE 4, events can have multiple dates and times (called datetimes), that these can be managed from a single event.
- Customizable Event Page Designs. Create the look and feel you want for your events and enrollments page using Event Espresso’s unlimited template options and components, plus HTML and CSS.
- Ticket Selector. Present several ticket options to registrants so they can purchase the ticket(s) that best suits their needs.
- Intelligent Single Page Checkout Process. The Event Espresso 4 checkout process is fast and intuitive. Registrants are given the option to automatically copy the primary registrant’s information for any additional registrants.
- Default Prices. Set up events fast with pre-configured default prices.
- Mobile Ticketing Apps. The Event Espresso mobile registration system lets you validate tickets, speed up in-venue registrations, create multiple check-in “stations” and track participants.
- Event Check-In List. Generate an exportable list of attendees and confirm those who have attended.
- Administrative Pre-approval. Control who can and can’t register for your events.
- Public Commenting. Add “social proof” by allowing potential customers to interact with you online via commenting and previous participants to post comments that can help others choose whether or not to sign up. Moderation settings for public commenting are configured via the WP default commenting settings.
- Search Engine Friendly Event Page URLs. Keyword-rich URLs take advantage of your WP site’s Permalinks configuration settings. Search engine friendly permalinks that have relevant keywords enhance the context of your content and is favored by search engines, helping you get more visitors to your events.
- Your Organization Settings. you can configure your organization’s profile to be used throughout Event Espresso and your WP themes. Organization information include: business name, street address, city, state, country, zip code, email, telephone, VAT/tax number, logo, Facebook URL, Twitter URL, LinkedIn URL, Pinterest URL, Google+ URL, Instagram URL.
- Import Events. EE 4 provides an advanced importing feature that allows you to import a lot of event data all at one time. You can export, edit and upload information about events, datetimes, ticketing details, pricing, registration questions, venues, terms, taxonomies, term relationships and more.
- Register Multiple Participants. EE 4 allows an individual or an organization to book multiple participants at once. Event managers specify how many people are able to enroll in one session by specifying either a limit on ticket purchases per order, or per-ticket minimums and maximums.
- A Community Of Event Experts. Event Espresso provides users with access to an expert community of experienced event managers and plugin users. You can network with other Event Espresso users using their community chat room, user support forums, job board, and social media discussions on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Google+.
- Social Sharing. Event attendees and website visitors can help increase exposure for your events using social share buttons.
- 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 even customize the templates to display event information in your own unique way.
Additional features include:
- Hooks, Actions And Filters. These features allow web developers to implement safer and more reliable customizations and extensions to the Event Espresso software that are fully compatible with WordPress.
- Metabox Management & Reorganization. Event Espresso leverages the WP user interface, which gives you the ability to reorganize the user interface to match your workflow. Each meta box can be collapsed, re-arranged or removed from your page.
- Autonomy, Flexibility & 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 objectives, the software has been built using a modular that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money in the process.
The premium edition of Event Espresso also includes 40+ additional features, including:
- Email shortcodes that includes registrant data in emails and newsletters.
- Default surcharge (the same as applying a service tax to each ticket).
- Default payment status.
Add ons
As mentioned earlier, Event Espresso provides “addons”, which allow software users to further enhance the functionality of the event management process.
Some of these add ons include:
- Events Vector Maps Template Add on: The Vector Maps custom events list template allows you to display all scheduled events by location. Four maps are currently available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Recurring Events Management Add-on: The Recurring Events management add on lets you put your events on autopilot by scheduling repeated events weeks or months … even years ahead. You can create as many events in advance as you need. Event Espresso will automatically open and close registrations for all of your recurring events.
- Events Date Range Template Addon: The Date Range custom event list template enables your users to browse for events that occur within a certain date range.
- Social Coupons Integration Addon: If your website is featured on 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 lets you take advantage of the WP user system. With the WP User Integration add-on you can give your users a special incentive by offering member pricing and overriding event prices when members are logged in. You can even set up member-only events where only registered users of the site can have access to these special events. Members can also enter personal details into their profile page allowing them to quickly register for events by auto-filling in their personal information on the event registration form. Users can also view event history and make payment for events.
- Roles And Permissions Basic & Pro Add-on Versions: This add-on lets you include others in your organization to help manage your events and give new users the capacity 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 give them different permissions with different privileges, allowing others to help you manage your events or the events that other people create. You can customize roles so that a user does not have access to certain sections of your WP dashboard and/or certain areas of your Event Espresso settings. If you’d like to allow users to control factors geographically for events and users, use the Roles and Permissions Pro addon.
- EE4 Event Ticketing Add-on: The Ticketing add-on gives you the ability to generate tickets with bar codes. The Bar Scanning add-on adds the ability to scan ticket bar codes. The ticketing addon includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple barcode types are included for handling check-in scans at venues. Registrants 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 attendees and to validate tickets.
- Events Calendar Addon: This add on uses the WP calendar to display events and event categories in an attractive graphical calendar.
- JSON API Add on: The new Event Espresso JSON API addon permits other software applications, websites, mobile applications, etc… to access your Event Espresso details through an API (Application Programming Interface).
Note: The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to the plugin, including new add-ons.
To learn more about the latest Event Espreso features and add-ons, visit the plugin website:
User Feedback
Here are some of the many great testimonials that satisfied plugin users have written about Event Espresso:
”EventEspresso saves us money, saves our secretary 16-24 hours and looks so professionally done that people ask us how we do it; which we happily tell them, “Event Espresso, and be sure to get the ticketing add-on.”” David, House of Prayer
”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
”You guys have done an AWESOME job with this system…promise me to keep up the excellent work you guys are doing, for as long as you can… Respect!” Robert Jarnroth, Jarnroth Digital Productions
Event Espresso Tips
Whether you are a motivational speaker, teacher, show promoter, or event management consultant, there are just unlimited possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso plugin.
After downloading the plugin and becoming a licensed user, visit the forums for inspiration and practical ways to streamline your event management workflow or improve the experience of your event registrants.
Product Support
Event Espresso works with with most WordPress plugins and WordPress themes that follow WP coding standards. If you find that you need support with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides highly responsive technical support, as so many of its customers confirm:
”No complaints here. Satisfied customer. You can teach us all few things about customer service. Thanks!” Charles
Event Espresso provides comprehensive support with 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 web developers with a proven track record of support, so this is definitely a plugin you can count on to manage your events.
Software Pricing
Event Espresso is available in different plugin editions, including a FREE basic edition (called Event Espresso Decaf). For personal support and advanced software functionality, however, you should consider using one of the paid plugin versions below:
- Personal License Edition – This license lets you set up Event Espresso on 1 domain only. It includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything License – This allows you to run Event Espresso on one site only. Pricing includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add-ons and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $279.95.
- Developer Licensing – This allows you to install Event Espresso on five domains. It includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $249.95.
The cost to purchase 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 Management And Ticket Registration Software For WordPress
Please Note: The pricing above was current at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin author when you visit the website.
Event Espresso – Additional Information
The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to its plugin. Make sure to stay subscribed to their customer update list 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 use-case, or to report bugs and give feedback.
For all documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso website.
We Recommend
Event Espresso is the leading WordPress event registration and ticketing manager plugin, used by thousands of event managers.
If you are a WordPress user and you plan to run an event that involves scheduling dates, times and venues (offline and online), registering participants, and/or selling tickets or seating, then you will probably not find a better plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: Event Espresso – WordPress Event Manager And Ticket Registration Software
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