Does your company currently run or plan to run events that need managing registrations, such as seminars, group courses, non-profit fundraisers, corporate conferences, or even a large-scale event such as a trade show, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to register to attend or participate?
Co-ordinating event registrations can be a complex process. You will probably need to co-ordinate scheduling, available dates and spaces, attendee numbers, data processing and storage, payment processing and sending invoices, confirmations, reminders, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and providing tickets to event registrants.
There are lots 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 replicate repeat events, give you more control, create a better client experience and grow your sales.
The problem is that this can be costly.
The good news is that if you own a WordPress-powered digital presence, you can easily set up an inexpensive and professional online event registration solution.
Introducing …
Event Espresso – WordPress Event Management And Ticketing Registration Plugin
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin lets you easily schedule multiple events and begin accepting online registrations in a few minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and accept online event bookings)
Event Espresso is a versatile and feature-rich plugin that gives you complete control of your event registration management process.
Customize registration forms
You can use a number of event registration strategies, from simple online enrollments and straight up ticket-selling, to setting up custom registration forms in order to better understand your participants, or integrating your event registration forms with social media sites like Facebook.
View detailed information about event attendees
Please Note: At the time of writing this article, Event Espresso offers two different versions of their plugin: Event Espresso 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new EE 4 is fundamentally different than the older EE 3, as the software has been redeveloped using a different structure to allow for future growth and expansion. The Event Espresso 4 plugin platform has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and price. The developers aim to eventually move completely to EE 4, so keep this in mind as you learn more about the benefits and features of this plugin.
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just some of the many benefits of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your website or blog:
Hands-Free Event Registration Management And Ticketing Solution
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your existing website or blog into an automated and fully featured event management site … from custom registration forms and automated response emails, to seating capacity limits, multiple pricing options and discount codes, to printable tickets and seating charts.
Better Business Productivity
By using a web-based event registration system like Event Espresso, you save time and improve your business productivity by practically eliminating the need to process registrations and sign-ups manually.
Basically, you are making it easier for attendees to perform the sign-up process themselves.
Allowing your customers to do the data themselves frees you up from doing administration and lets you spend more time on planning a more enjoyable event.
Full Control Over The User Experience
As you will discover shortly, Event Espresso gives you full control over the event management and booking process that you want your participants to experience.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Reduced Costs: Event Espresso gives you a very inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to other options or using a 3rd party service. The cost is kept to a minimum through a model where Event Espresso users buy the core plugin (which suits the needs of most users) and purchase add-ons when you need new functionality.
- Increased Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept online event bookings any time of day or night. In addition, Event Espresso social add-ons (see below) let people who are interested in attending your event invite others who may also be interested.
- Paperless Event Sign Up Process: With Event Espresso, the event sign-up process can remain wholly online, significantly reducing traditional paper consumption from tasks related to administration.
- All Information Belongs To You. You own all the data you acquire from your event participants.
Features
Event Espresso delivers functionality to end-users through standard features (these come with the plugin) and optional features that you can buy for an extra cost, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides many built-in to WordPress users. Here are just a few:
- Fast and easy to install and set up. Ready to use in very little time.
- Customized Event Registration. With Event Espresso you can gather specific data using a custom event registration form on your web site to create a great experience for your clients.
- Customizable Event Designs. Customize your events and registrations page using Event Espresso’s template options and elements, and HTML and/or CSS.
- Collect Payments. Event Espresso provides integration with payment gateways, allowing you to collect money prior to running events.
- Intelligent Single Page Checkout. The Event Espresso 4 checkout process is smart, fast and intuitive. Registrants are given the option to automatically duplicate the primary attendee’s registration information for any added registrants.
- Spam Protection. Eliminate the likelihood of spammers and bot software programs creating false registrations on your site by using reCAPTCHA settings that provide human validation.
- In-App Documentation. Event Espresso 4 provides 3 built-in in-app documentation systems: Help Tours, Help Tabs and Tool Tips.
- Event Check-In List. Generate an exportable list of event attendees and check-in those who have attended.
- No Ticket Events. Create events without the requirement for participants to book tickets. Event Espresso can be used for all forms of events, not only when tickets are needed.
- XML RSS Event Feeds. Keep your customers updated about your events, bring in more visitors and expand your content distribution with the built-in XML RSS events feed.
- Keyword-Rich Page URLs. Keyword rich URLs leverage your Permalinks configuration settings. SEO-friendly permalinks that use topic-relevant keywords add to the context of your events and improves your search rankings, helping you get a more targeted audience to your site.
- 15+ Languages. Event Espresso has been translated into 15+ languages, with more translations coming soon.
- Default Tickets. If you find yourself creating similar tickets for many of your events, you can automatically set one of those tickets as your default ticket for the next event simply by ticking a checkbox.
- Multiple Participant Registration. Event Espresso 4 allows an individual or an organization to order multiple tickets and different types of tickets simultaneously. You control how many attendees are able to enroll in one booking session by specifying either limits on ticket purchases per order, or per-ticket minimums and maximums.
- Attendee Profiles. You can manage your attendee’s profiles and payment history and keep all of their data organized and easily within reach.
- Team Member Manager. Save time and stay organized by reusing staff member profiles for multiple events or displaying their profile using a shortcode in your event description.
- Accurate Attendee Manager. You have control of your attendees’ records; who has registered, which event they have booked and what amount they have paid. With the attendee manager, you can get an overview of registered participants and their payment status, easily add/edit attendee records and payments, export an attendee list to an Excel spreadsheet for additional uses, send customized payment reminders and receipts and communicate with your event participants on a person-by-person basis or collectively.
Extra features include:
- Define Extra Meta Information. This allows you to have more control and options over your events and how your information displays to your prospects.
- Full Logging & Remote Logging. Event Espresso 4 lets you output a log file with debugging data which can be useful for web developers when troubleshooting.
- 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 mission, the company operates on a modular and efficient model that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money in the process.
The premium version of Event Espresso also includes over 40 additional features, including:
- Email shortcodes for including registrant data in notification emails and email updates.
- Question groups that make it easy to reuse commonly asked questions for similar events.
- Category titles and descriptions on event listings.
Event Espresso Add-Ons
As well as an incredible range of features, Event Espresso provides “add ons”, which allow you to further expand the capabilities of events.
Some of these addons 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 an event does not have a featured image available, it will use a default image.
- Recurring Events Management Add-on: The Recurring Events management add on enables you to put events on autopilot by scheduling repeated events weeks or months ahead. You can schedule as many classes, meetings, courses and conferences in advance as you want. Event Espresso will then automatically open and close bookings for all recurring events.
- Events Category Accordion Template Add-on: The Category Accordion template shows the categories in a simple list. Clicking a category name displays the events associated with that category and closes previously open categories.
- Social Coupons Integration Add on: If your site uses Groupon.com you can easily accept Groupon codes to your events. You can also specify whether events accept the social coupons or not.
- Custom Template Add-on: The Custom Template add-on lets you display your events in a variety of visually exciting 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 ideal for venues and events such as theaters, concert halls, play houses, sports arenas and stadiums. The Seating Chart add on lets you promote reserved or assigned seating to your events and venues directly from your WordPress site. The Seating Chart add-on lets you control the environment for your attendees and design assigned seating charts and attach a single price to each seat.
- EE4 Event Ticketing And Bar Scanning Addon: 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 barcodes. The ticketing add-on includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple barcode types are included for handling check-in scans at the venue 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 attendees and to validate tickets.
- EE4 Events Table Template Add-on: The Events Table Template add on gives event managers an easy-to-use system that lets you edit the design of your event lists. It comes with a simple table template with category filters, table search, table paging and more. It also allows developers to build custom templates using one of the included templates as a base template.
- JSON API Add on: The Event Espresso JSON API addon lets other applications, web sites, mobile apps, etc… to access your Event Espresso content through an API (Application Programming Interface).
Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to its plugin, including new addons.
For complete details about the newest Event Espreso features and add ons, visit the plugin website here:
Users – Testimonials
Below are a few of the many testimonials that satisfied users have posted about Event Espresso:
“It is a very, very slick plugin. It’s one of those plugins where you install it, change a couple of settings, and boom you’re selling tickets.” Brad Williams, WebDevStudios
”…it really does blow everything else that’s out there out of the water.” Chris Reynolds, Arcane Palette Creative Design
”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
Useful Tips
Whether you are a motivational speaker, teacher, concert planner, or event management professional, there are simply endless possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso software.
After downloading the plugin and becoming a registered owner, search the user forum for inspiration and practical ways to streamline your event management and registration workflow and enhance the experience of your event attendees.
Support
Event Espresso works with with other WP plugins and WordPress themes that follow WordPress coding standards. If you do need help with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides excellent customer support, as many of its satisfied clients attest:
“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 Event Espresso plugin provides incredible support with access to a support forum, in-depth online documentation with faqs, knowledgebase 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 a well-staffed team of experienced WordPress web developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely a plugin you can rely on to run and manage your events.
Event Espresso Pricing
Event Espresso is available in various plugin editions, including a FREE basic edition (named Event Espresso Decaf). For support and advanced plugin options, however, you will want to consider purchasing one of the paid plugin editions below:
- Personal License – This enables you to configure Event Espresso on 1 site only. Pricing includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything Licensing – This edition allows you to install Event Espresso on one domain only. It includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium addons and 1 year of upgrades and support. Cost = $279.95.
- Developer License Edition – This lets you configure Event Espresso on five domains. Price 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 special offers. Currently, the software sells for the pricing shown above. Check the plugin’s website for the current price: Event Espresso – Event Espresso
Please Note: The pricing above was current at the time this review was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing 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 software. Make sure to register for their newsletter when you visit their site to receive the latest information and updates.
Look up the software’s online documentation tools to find answers to common questions about setting up and using Event Espresso, and the support forums if you have questions related to your particular use-case, or to notify developers about problems and share feedback.
For detailed documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso web site.
We Recommend
Event Espresso is the preferred WordPress event registration and ticketing management software, used and trusted by thousands of users.
If you own a WordPress web site and you plan to run events that involve scheduling dates and venues, enrolling participants, or selling seating, then you will probably not find a more suitable plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticketing Management
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