Do you currently run or plan to run events that need managing registrations, such as workshops, community classes, charity fundraisers, networking conferences, or even a big event such as a food fair, 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 most likely have to manage event schedules, date availability, participant numbers, data processing and storage, payment processing and sending invoices, confirmations, reminders, refunds and 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 copy settings for repeat events, give event managers more control, create a better client experience and grow your sales.
The problem is that this can be expensive.
Fortunately, if you own a WordPress-powered site, you can install an inexpensive and highly professional web-based event registration system.
Announcing …
Event Espresso – WordPress Event Registration & Ticketing Management System
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin lets you easily schedule an event and begin accepting online bookings in just a few minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and process online registrations)
Event Espresso is a versatile and feature-rich plugin that gives you complete control over the event registration management process.
Customize event registration forms
You can use several event registration strategies, from simple online sign-ups and straight up ticket sales, to setting up custom registration forms in order to better understand your attendees, or integrating your event bookings with social media and email marketing solutions.
Access detailed information about event attendees
Note: At the time of writing this review, Event Espresso is transitioning between two different versions of their software: Event Espresso 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new EE 4 is significantly different than the older EE 3, as the plugin has been rebuilt 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 transition completely to Event Espresso 4, so keep this in mind as you learn more about the benefits and features of this plugin.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your website or blog:
Automated Event Registration Management
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your current website into a feature-rich and professional event management site … from custom registration forms and automated response emails, to seating limits, multiple price levels and discount codes, to printable tickets and even seating charts.
Higher Business Productivity
By using an online event registration system like Event Espresso, you save time and increase your business productivity by practically eliminating the chore of processing registrations and bookings manually.
Essentially, you are making it easier for attendees to enroll themselves.
Allowing your enrollees to do the data themselves frees you up from doing administration and lets you spend more time on organizing a memorable event.
More Control Over The User Experience
As you will discover shortly, Event Espresso gives you full control over the event management and registration process that you want your attendees to experience.
Some additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Significantly Lower Costs: Event Espresso provides you with a very low cost online event registration management solution compared to building your own system or using a 3rd-party service. This is made possible through a model where users start with the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and then purchase add ons when you need extra features.
- More Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept new registrations any time of day or night. In addition, Event Espresso social and marketing add-ons (see below) let people interested in registering for your event invite others who may be interested.
- Green Event Sign Up Process: With Event Espresso, the event signup process can be transacted entirely in digital form, significantly reducing traditional paper waste from tasks associated with administration.
- All Data Belongs To You. You control all the data collected from event participants.
Features
The Event Espresso plugin delivers functionality to its users through built-in features (these are included with the plugin) and additional features that you can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso offers many great built-in to WordPress users. Here are just some of these:
- Quick and simple to install and implement. Ready to use in no time.
- Multiple Times and Dates Per Event. In EE 4, events can have many dates and times (datetimes), which these can be managed from a single event.
- Custom Notification Emails. Easily configure customized automatic registration and payment notification emails to communicate with event participants.
- Collect Payments. Event Espresso provides integration with leading payment gateways, allowing you to collect registration payments before running events.
- Google Maps. Google Maps integration allows event managers to configure the display settings of Google Maps on the event listing and event details pages.
- Default Prices. Set up events quickly with pre-configured default pricing.
- Mobile Ticketing Apps. The Event Espresso mobile registration system allows you to authenticate tickets, speed up in-venue registrations, create multiple check-in “stations” and track attendees.
- Event Check-In List. Generate an exportable list of event participants and check-in everyone who attends.
- Waiting Lists. Prospective attendees can join a waiting list if your event has reached maximum capacity. You can also make it a requirement wait-list members pay for their spots if you plan to add more capacity for your event.
- Private Commenting On Contacts. Record observations about contacts on their profile and how you have interacted with your contacts. Private notes allows you to keep records of when event participants contacted you, your internal observations, and how you have helped them.
- Draft (status) Events. Draft events enable you to develop an event in your own time frame without publishing it to your site. You can continue developing your event pages until you are ready to take things live, or schedule to publish your event at a later time and date.
- Multi-Language Application. Event Espresso can be set up in more than 15 languages, with more translations coming soon.
- Exportable Data. You can export all of your data gathered from your event customers into Excel or CSV format for compiling advanced reports, planning new marketing strategies, reviewing attendee statistics, and so on.
- Register Multiple Attendees. EE 4 allows one person or an organization to pay for multiple tickets and different types of tickets at the same time. You decide how many people can enrol in a single booking session by specifying either limits on ticket purchases per order, or per-ticket minimums and maximums.
- Automatic Plugin Installation Upgrades. Event Espresso offers easy one-click updating to ensure that you have the latest features and to keep your installation up-to-date with the latest version of WordPress.
- Staff Manager. Save time and stay organized by reusing staff profiles for multiple events or displaying profile information such as staff member’s contact information, resume and photo using a shortcode in your event description.
- Accurate Participant Management. You have control of your customers’ records; who has enrolled, which event they have booked and how much they’ve paid. With the attendee manager, you can get an overview of registered attendees and their payment status, easily add/edit attendee records and payments, export a list of event attendees to Excel for additional reports, send custom payment reminders and receipts and communicate with your attendees individually or collectively.
Additional features include:
- Define Extra Meta Information. This feature allows web-based software developers to have more control and options over your content and how the information displays to prospective customers.
- Full Logging & Remote Logging. Event Espresso 4 allows you to create a log file with debugging data that can be useful for web developers who are diagnosing plugin problems.
- Autonomy, Flexibility & Value: According to the philosophy stated on their web site, Event Espresso’s aim 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 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:
- Live-filtering when searching for events in the Event Espresso admin.
- Question groups that simplify the process of reusing a series of questions for similar events.
- Category titles and descriptions on event listing pages.
Event Espresso Add-Ons
As mentioned previously, Event Espresso provides “addons”, which allow users to significantly expand the functionality of events.
Some of these addons include:
- Events Vector Maps Template Addon: The Vector Maps custom events list template allows you to display all upcoming events by location. There are four maps available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Recurring Events Management Addon: The Recurring Events management add-on allows you to put your events on autopilot by scheduling repeated events weeks or months ahead. You can add as many events in advance as you like. Event Espresso will then automatically open and close bookings 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 within a certain date range.
- EE4 Events Social Sharing Add-on: Add social sharing features to the end of your Event Espresso “thank you” page that lets your attendees to share a message about their event registration on Twitter and Facebook after registration.
- Custom Files Add on: The Custom Files addon provides PHP files that let you override certain aspects of the plugin.
- Roles And Permissions Basic And Pro Add-on Editions: This addon lets you include other users in the event management process and give new users permission 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 capabilities, so others can help you manage your events or events that others create. You can customize roles so that users do not have access to certain sections of your WP dashboard and/or certain sections of your Event Espresso settings. If you’d like to create geographic regions for other people to manage events, use the Roles and Permissions Pro addon.
- Multi-Event Registration Add-on: The Multi-Event registration addon gives your potential customers 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.
- EE4 Events Calendar Add-on: This add-on uses the WP calendar to display events and event categories using an attractive graphical calendar.
- JSON API Add-on: The Event Espresso JSON API addon allows other applications, online tools, mobile apps, etc… to access your Event Espresso data through an Application Programming Interface (API).
Note: The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to its software, including new addons.
To learn more about the newest Event Espreso features and add ons, visit the plugin website here:
Users – Feedback
Below are just some of the testimonials that satisfied users have written about Event Espresso:
”My clients have used Event Espresso for Transportation (Cadet Bus for leave), Parties (tailgates and brewery tours), and Horse-back riding lessons and camps. What a terrific plug-in and fantastic support from Seth!” Nina, Blue Iris Web Design
”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
”Loving the functions and support from Event Espresso. One of the best plugins I’ve ever bought!” Nathan
Plugin Tips
Whether you are an education services provider, teacher, show planner, or event management consultant, there are simply unlimited possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso plugin.
After downloading the plugin and becoming a licensed user, go through the user forum for tips and practical ways to streamline your event management and registration workflow and improve the experience of your customers.
Support
Event Espresso works with with most WP plugins and themes that follow WordPress coding standards. If you find that you need support with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides great customer support, as many of its customers attest:
”Thank you Seth for being so responsive and going above and beyond the call of duty with your app! I highly recommend Event Espresso for its functionality and for the stellar support. Seth has a deep knowledge and understanding of WordPress and has built a tool that is seamless to use for both organizer and attendee alike! After looking at a bunch of alternatives, Event Espresso far surpasses the other apps that are available.” Wendy Troupe, ICS North Pole Express
The software provides robust support including access to support forums, 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.
Additionally, Event Espresso boasts an established team of experienced web developers with a proven track record of support, so this is definitely a solution you can depend on to manage your events.
Event Espresso Price
Event Espresso is available in a range of editions, including a FREE basic edition (referred to as Event Espresso Decaf). For support and advanced software functionality, however, you should consider purchasing one of the paid plugin versions below:
- Personal Edition – This option allows you to configure Event Espresso on one site only. Pricing includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Cost = $69.95.
- Everything License – This lets you set up Event Espresso on one domain only. Pricing includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add ons and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $279.95.
- Developer License – This allows you to run Event Espresso on five domains. Price includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $249.95.
Price details for the Event Espresso plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the plugin is being retailed for the pricing shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: 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.
Additional Plugin 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 setup and how to use Event Espresso, and the support forums for questions related to a specific situation, or to notify developers about bugs and leave feedback.
For all installation and support documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso web site.
We Recommend
Event Espresso is the leading WP event booking and ticketing manager software, used and trusted by thousands of WordPress users.
If you are a WordPress site owner and you currently run events that involve scheduling dates, times and venues (offline and online), booking attendees, or reserving tickets or seating, then you will probably not find a more suitable solution for your needs than Event Espresso.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Event Espresso – WordPress Event Registration & Ticketing Manager Plugin
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