Does your business currently run or plan to run events that require handling bookings or registrations, such as workshops, training courses, charity fundraisers, corporate functions, or even a big event such as a show, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to register to attend?
Managing event bookings can be a complex and time-consuming process. You will most likely have to co-ordinate event schedules, event dates, registration numbers, data collection and storage, payments and invoicing, confirmations, reminders, cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special needs and issuing tickets to attendees.
There are a number of advantages to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can streamline your business processes, save time and lower costs, help you easily duplicate previously-run events, give you more control, improve customer experience and grow your sales.
The problem is that setting up an online event registration system can be quite costly.
The good news is that if you run a WordPress-powered website, you can easily set up an inexpensive and professional online event booking solution.
Introducing …
Event Espresso – Event Manager And Ticketing Registration Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin for WordPress allows you to easily schedule your event and begin processing registrations in just minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and process online registrations)
Event Espresso is a versatile and feature-packed application that gives you complete control over your event registration management process.
Customize registration forms
You can use multiple event registration strategies, from simple online sign-ups and straight up ticket sales, to setting up custom registration forms for collecting detailed information about your event attendees, or integrating your event registration forms with social media and autoresponders.
View detailed information about your event attendees
Please Note: Currently, Event Espresso supports two different versions of their plugin: 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 accommodate future growth. The Event Espresso 4 plugin platform has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and pricing. The company plans to eventually phase out Event Espresso 3, so keep this in mind as you read more about this plugin.
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just some 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 web site into a fully-featured and automated event management site … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to seating limits, multiple price options and discount codes, to printable tickets and seating charts.
Higher Business Productivity
By using a web-based event registration solution like Event Espresso, you save time and improve your business productivity by virtually eliminating the need to process registrations and sign-ups manually.
Basically, you are making it easier for attendees to complete the enrollment process on their own.
Allowing your participants to do all of the data themselves frees up your time and lets you direct more of your resources on organizing a memorable event.
Complete Control Over The User Experience
As you will learn in a moment, Event Espresso gives you complete control over the event management process that you want your attendees to experience.
Some additional plugin benefits include:
- Lower Costs: The Event Espresso plugin provides you with an inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to building your own software or using a third-party service. This is made possible through a model where you start with the core plugin (which suits the needs of most users) and then purchase optional add-ons only if you need new functionality.
- Higher Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept new registrations 24/7. Not only that, but, Event Espresso social features and addons (see below) let people interested in attending your event invite friends who may be interested in attending.
- Green And Paperless Event Sign Up Process: With Event Espresso, the event signup process can remain entirely in digital form, reducing typical paper waste from tasks related to administration.
- Own Your Data. You own all the data you acquire from event participants.
Event Espresso Features
The Event Espresso software delivers functionality to its customers via standard features (these are included with the plugin) and additional features that customers can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso offers many great features to site owners. Here are just some of these:
- Fast and simple to install and implement. Ready to start accepting registrations in minutes.
- Multiple Dates and Times Per Event. In Event Espresso 4, events can have many dates and times (called datetimes), that these can be managed from a single event.
- Customized Confirmation Email Message. Configure automated registration and payment notification email messages to communicate with your registrants.
- Collect Payments. Event Espresso integrates with payment gateways, allowing you to collect payments before running your events.
- Google Maps. Google Maps integration allows event managers to configure the display settings of Google Maps on your event listing and event details pages.
- Default Prices. Create events quickly with pre-configured default ticket prices.
- In-App Documentation Systems. Event Espresso 4 includes three comprehensive in-app documentation systems: Help Tours, Help Tabs and Tool Tips.
- Event Check-In List. Generate an exportable list of event participants and confirm everyone who attends.
- Waiting Lists. Latecomers can subscribe to a waiting list if your event is completely sold out. Additionally, you can make it a requirement waiting list members pre-pay if you plan to expand numbers for your event.
- Public Commenting. Add social a new level of interaction to your events pages by encouraging potential prospects to interact with you online via commenting and previous attendees to post comments that can help others choose whether or not to register. Moderation settings for comments are configured via the WP built-in commenting settings.
- Search Engine Friendly Event Page Web Links. Keyword rich event page URLs take advantage of your Permalinks configuration settings. “Pretty” web links with relevant keywords enhance the context of your events and improves your search rankings, helping you drive a more targeted audience to your site.
- 15+ Languages. Event Espresso has been translated into 15+ languages, and more translations are being added all the time.
- Exportable Data. You can export all of your data gathered from your event customers into Excel or CSV format for compiling advanced reports, implementing marketing strategies, reviewing attendee statistics, etc..
- Multiple Event Participant. EE 4 allows an individual or a group to purchase multiple tickets and different types of tickets simultaneously. Event managers control how many attendees are able to enrol in one session by specifying either a limit on ticket purchases per order, or per-ticket minimums and maximums.
- Automatic Plugin Upgrading. Event Espresso provides simple 1-click software installation updating to make sure that you have the latest features and to keep your plugin installation up-to-date with new versions of WordPress.
- Social Sharing. Event registrants and your website visitors can spread the word about your events using social media share buttons.
- Attendee Reports. Quick-view event reports provides you with information of all registrations and transactions, enabling you to measure the performance of your events with the aggregate number of registrations and how much money you have collected.
Additional features include:
- Object-Oriented Programming. Event Espresso is simple enough for general WordPress users, and also robust and customizable for higher end users and developers. The bottom line is that by using Object-oriented programming (OOP), Event Espresso 4 permits more complex enhancements and customizations to the application.
- Maintenance Mode. You can pause registrations for normal website traffic whenever you need to carry out maintenance on your site. You can still work on your event pages during maintenance mode.
- Flexibility, Autonomy & 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 objectives, 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 edition of Event Espresso also provides you with over 40 additional features, including:
- Duplicating events – eliminates the need to re-enter event details when creating new events.
- Default surcharge (similar to adding a service tax to tickets).
- Category titles and descriptions on event listing pages.
Add ons
In addition to a comprehensive number of features, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow users to significantly enhance 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 allows you to display scheduled events by location. 4 maps are currently available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Recurring Events Management Add-on: The Recurring Events manager add on lets you put events on autopilot by scheduling repeated events weeks or months … even years in advance. You can add as many events in the future as you need. Event Espresso will automatically open and close bookings for all recurring events.
- Events Calendar Table Template Addon: The Calendar Table template is a list template with a bold date and customizable “register now” button. The template can also be customized to display an event thumbnail image instead of a date.
- Social Media Buttons Addon: The social media addon displays Facebook, Twitter and Google+ buttons in your events. The Social Media add-on is included free with any of the Event Espresso support licenses.
- Custom Files Addon: The Custom Files add-on provides PHP files that let you bypass certain aspects of the Event Espresso plugin.
- Roles And Permissions Basic & Pro Add on Editions: This add-on lets you involve other users in your organization to help manage your events 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 WordPress users roles and assign them different permissions with different privileges, so your staff can help you manage your events or events that others create. You can customize roles so that a user does not have access to certain areas 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.
- Multiple Event Registration Add-on: The Multi-Event registration addon gives your potential attendees the ability to register for 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 Multi-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 WordPress calendar to display events and categories of events in a nice graphical calendar.
- Infusionsoft Integration Addon: With the Event Espresso 4 Infusionsoft App and Merchant Account integration all-in-one sales and marketing software addon, you can completely automate your customer relations and email marketing campaigns to seamlessly capture registrant data, track bookings, and accept payments from your website.
Note: The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to the software, including new add ons.
For more details about the newest Event Espreso features and addons, check out the plugin here:
User Feedback
Here are some of the many testimonials that 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 searched long and hard to find something that would serve my needs. This is, by far, the most complete and comprehensive solution I have found.” Bill Hepper, We Teach Live
”I’m using it on multiple sites and enjoying it. It’s simple and as others have stated… fast service and real help.” Arlen Nagata
Useful Tips
Whether you are an education services provider, presenter, seminar planner, or event management consultant, there are just unlimited possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso software.
After downloading your copy of the plugin and becoming a registered owner, go through the user forum for tips and practical ways to improve your event management workflow or improve the experience of your event registrants.
Support
Event Espresso is fully compatible with other WP plugins and themes that follow standard WordPress coding rules. If you do need support with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides excellent technical support, as so many of its clients confirm:
”Your plugin saved our client nearly $9000 in development costs because it handled the majority of the functionality we were looking for at a much lower cost. EventEspresso’s staff have been very responsive to our needs when we have them (which has been rare, because the plugin is so well coded). Great job on a great plugin!” Brandon P., Experience Farm
The software provides exceptional support including access to a support forum, in-depth online documentation with faqs, knowledgebase and how tos, email 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.
Additionally, 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 organize and manage your events.
Software Price
Event Espresso is available in various editions, including a FREE basic edition (named Event Espresso Decaf). For personal support and advanced software options, however, you may want to consider purchasing one of the premium plugin versions below:
- Personal Licensing – This option lets you install Event Espresso on 1 domain only. Pricing includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $69.95.
- Everything Licensing – This license enables you to configure Event Espresso on one site only. Cost includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add-ons and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $279.95.
- Developer License Edition – This license option allows you to configure Event Espresso on 5 sites. It includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and one 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 special offers. Presently, the plugin retails for the pricing shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Registration & Ticket Manager
Please Note: The pricing above was current at the time this review was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller when you visit the website.
Additional Information
The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to the software. Make sure to stay subscribed to their customer update list to receive the latest information and updates.
Use the plugin’s documentation pages for answers to common questions about setup and how to use Event Espresso, and the support forums if you have questions related to a specific use-case, or to notify developers about problems and give feedback.
For all installation and support documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso website.
Our Recommendation
Event Espresso is the leading WP event booking and ticketing management software, used by thousands.
If you own a WordPress site and you currently run an event that requires managing dates and venues, enrolling participants, and/or reserving tickets or seating, then you will probably not find a more suitable plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Event Espresso – Event Manager & Ticketing Registration System For WordPress
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