Does your organization currently run or plan to run events that require bookings, such as seminars, group courses, non-profit fundraisers, marketing conferences, or even a big event like a show, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to register to attend or participate?
Managing event bookings can be a time-consuming process. You will probably have to manage calendar schedules, available dates and seating allocations, registration numbers, data collection and admin, payments and invoicing, confirmations, reminders, cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and issuing tickets to event attendees.
There are a number of benefits to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can streamline your business processes, save time and lower costs, help you easily copy settings for previous events, give event managers more control, improve user experience and increase your sales.
The problem is that this can be costly.
The good news is that if you run a WordPress-based website, you can easily set up an inexpensive and highly professional web-based event registration system.
Presenting …
Event Espresso – Event Manager & Ticketing Registration System For WordPress
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin lets you easily set up an event and start receiving registrations literally in minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and process online event registrations)
Event Espresso is a flexible and feature-rich plugin that gives you full control of your event registration management process.
Customize registration forms
You can use various event registration strategies, from simple online enrolments and straight up selling tickets, to creating custom registration forms in order to better understand your event attendees, or integrating your event bookings with social media sites like Facebook.
Access detailed information about event attendees
Please Note: Currently, Event Espresso offers two different versions of their plugin: Event Espresso 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new EE 4 is impressively different than the older EE 3, as it has been redeveloped using a different structure to allow for future growth. The EE 4 plugin platform has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and pricing. The company plans to eventually transition completely to EE 4, so keep this in mind as you learn more about the benefits and advantages of using this plugin.
More info:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just some of the many benefits of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your web site:
Automated Event Registration Management
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your current digital presence into an automated and fully featured 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.
Better Business Productivity
By using an online event registration solution like Event Espresso, you save time and improve your business productivity by virtually eliminating the chore of processing registrations manually.
Essentially, you are enabling event participants to enroll by themselves.
Letting your clients to do all of the data entry frees you up from doing admin work and lets you invest more of your time on creating a memorable event.
Full Control Over The User Experience
As you will soon see, Event Espresso gives you full control over the event management process that you want your participants to experience.
Additional benefits include the following:
- Lower Costs: The Event Espresso plugin gives you an inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to other options or using a third-party provider. This is made possible through a model where Event Espresso users pay for the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and then buy optional add-ons when you need new features.
- More Sales: Event Espresso lets you accept new event signups any time of day or night. In addition, Event Espresso social sharing add-ons (see below) let people interested in registering for your event share your information with others who may also be interested.
- Green And Paperless Event Booking Process: With Event Espresso, your event booking process is conducted wholly online, reducing typical paper consumption from tasks related to administration.
- All Data Belongs To You. You own all the data acquired from event participants.
Features
Event Espresso delivers functionality to users through standard features (these are included with the plugin) and additional features that customers can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides many built-in to web site owners. Here are just a few:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in very little time.
- Customized Event Registration. Event Espresso lets you collect specific data using custom event registration forms on your site to prepare a great experience for your customers.
- Customizable Event Designs. Match your website’s look and feel for your events and enrollments page using Event Espresso’s template options and elements, as well as HTML and/or CSS.
- Ticket Selector. Present several ticket options to prospects and let them choose the ticket(s) that best fits their needs.
- Custom Post Types. Integrate Event Espresso into your WP theme and display venue details throughout other areas of your site.
- Default Price Types. Price types let you create new prices that adjust the default ticket pricing for your default ticket.
- Mobile Ticketing Apps. The Event Espresso mobile registration system enables you to validate tickets, speed up door registrations, create various check-in “stations” and track your attendees.
- Event Check-In List. Generate a list of event participants and confirm everyone who has attended.
- Administrative Pre-approval. Be selective about who can and cannot attend your events.
- Private Contact Notes. Record comments about event registrants on their profile. Private commenting enables you to keep a record of when event attendees contacted you, your internal observations, and how you have helped them.
- Keyword-Rich Event Page URLs. Keyword rich event page URLs take advantage of your WordPress site’s Permalinks configuration settings. Search engine friendly permalinks with topic-relevant keywords enhance the context of your content and improves your search rankings, helping you drive a more targeted audience to your website.
- Easy Event Management. Event Espresso puts you in complete control of all aspects of an event’s registration and ticketing, and lets you automate the process with event management tools that include staff and venue management, custom event designs, payment processing, list waiting, limits on attendees, printable tickets and more.
- Upload Events. Event Espresso 4 provides a CSV-based importing capability that allows you to import bulk event data at once. You can export, edit and import details about events, datetimes, ticketing details, prices, registration questions, venue info, terms, taxonomies, term relationships and more.
- Register Multiple Participants. EE 4 allows one person or people to pay for multiple tickets and different ticket types simultaneously. You control how many people are able to register in one registration by specifying either a limit on ticket purchases per order, or per-ticket minimums and maximums.
- Automatic Upgrades. Event Espresso provides easy 1-click software upgrading to ensure that you have the latest features and to keep your plugin installation compatible with the latest version of WordPress.
- Social Sharing. Event attendees and your site visitors can help spread the word about your events using social share buttons.
- Event Posts. Publish your events using pages or posts and take advantage of WordPress custom post types. You can also customize your page templates to display event information in your own custom way.
Extra features include:
- Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). Event Espresso is simple enough for basic WordPress users, and also extremely robust and customizable for enterprise-level users and web-based software developers. The bottom line is that by using Object-oriented programming (OOP), Event Espresso 4 allows for more complex enhancements and customizations to the software.
- Metabox Management & Organization. Event Espresso leverages the WP user interface, which brings the ability to reorder the user interface to suit your workflow. Each meta box can be collapsed, re-arranged or completely deleted from your workflow configuration.
- Flexibility, Autonomy And 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 goals, the company operates on 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 comes with 40+ additional features, including:
- Email shortcodes that includes participant data in notification emails and newsletters.
- Question groups that make it easy to reuse the same group of questions for similar events.
- Category titles and descriptions on event listings.
Event Espresso Add-Ons
In addition to a comprehensive range of features, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow customers to significantly expand the capabilities of managing your event.
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. There are 4 maps available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Recurring Events Dropdown Custom Template Add-on: The Recurring Events Drop-down custom template organizes many datetime events into a drop-down list.
- Events Calendar Table Template Add-on: The Calendar Table template is a list template with a bold date and customizable “register now” button. The template can be customized to show an event thumbnail instead of a date.
- Events Social Sharing Add on: This add-on adds social sharing features to the end of your Event Espresso “thank you” page that lets your registrants to share a message about their event registration on Twitter and Facebook after booking.
- Custom Files Add on: The Custom Files add on lets you bypass certain aspects of the Event Espresso plugin.
- Roles And Permissions Basic And Pro Addon Versions: This add-on lets you include others in the event management process 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 capabilities, allowing staff to help you manage your events or events that other people create. You can customize roles so that a user does not have access to certain sections of your WordPress dashboard and/or certain sections of your Event Espresso settings. If you’d like to allow users to have geographic responsibilities for events and users, use the Roles and Permissions Pro addon.
- Multiple Event Registration Add on: The Multi-Event registration add-on gives potential attendees the ability to register for multiple events at once. In each event listing attendees will be given the option to either register for a single event or add multiple events to their shopping 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 Addon: This add on uses the WP calendar to display events and event categories in a nice graphical calendar.
- MailChimp Integration Addon: The MailChimp add on allows you to automatically register attendees to a specific mailing autoresponder list or group within MailChimp.
Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to its software, including new add ons.
For complete details about the latest Event Espreso features and addons, visit the plugin website here:
User Testimonials
Here are some of the many great 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
”This really is a hell of a plugin. For me, it’s probably the final nail in the coffin for Joomla, as WP can now pretty much do EVERYTHING Joomla does, but better. Love the simplicity of this plugin!” Sam, Web Contempo
”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
Event Espresso Tips
Whether you are a gym owner, teacher, festival planner, or event management professional, there are just endless possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso plugin.
After downloading your copy of the plugin and becoming a registered owner, visit the forums for new ideas and practical suggestions to improve your event management and registration workflow and improve the experience of your event participants.
Plugin Support
Event Espresso is compatible with other WP plugins and themes that follow standard WordPress coding rules. If you experience issues with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides highly responsive support, as so many of its customers attest:
”It’s magical. Support is amazing, plugin is simple to use, a 3 year old could use the iPhone app…it all is very impressive and professional.” David, House of Prayer
The software provides robust support that includes access to a support forum, comprehensive 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.
In addition, Event Espresso boasts an established team of experienced WordPress developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely software you can depend on to manage your events.
Software Pricing
Event Espresso is available in various editions, including a FREE basic edition (named Event Espresso Decaf). For support and advanced plugin features, however, you will want to consider purchasing one of the premium plugin editions below:
- Personal Licensing – This license option allows you to set up Event Espresso on 1 site only. Price includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything License – This edition allows you to run Event Espresso on 1 site only. Price includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add-ons and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $279.95.
- Developer Licensing – This license option enables you to configure Event Espresso on five domains. It includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $249.95.
Current pricing for the Event Espresso plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the software is being retailed for the prices shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticketing Management
Please Note: The pricing above was current at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller when you visit the site.
Event Espresso – Additional Info
The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to the software. Make sure to remain subscribed to their customer update list 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 specific situation, or to report issues and give feedback.
For all installation and support documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso product site.
Our Recommendation
Event Espresso is the leading WP event booking and ticketing management plugin, used and trusted by thousands of companies.
If you are a WordPress site owner and you currently run an event that involves managing dates and venues (offline and online), registering attendees, and/or reserving seating, then you will probably not find a better plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticketing Manager
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