Do you currently run or plan to run events that need co-ordinating bookings, such as workshops, community classes, not-for-profit fundraisers, networking events, or even a big event like an art exhibition, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to book to attend or participate?
Managing event registrations is a time-consuming process. You will most likely have to manage scheduling, event dates, attendee numbers, data processing, payment processing and sending invoices, confirmations, reminders, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special needs and issuing tickets to attendees.
There are many advantages to setting up an online event registration system. It can streamline your business processes, save time and lower expenses, help you easily reproduce previously-run events, give you more control, improve client experience and increase your sales.
The problem is that setting this up can be quite costly.
Fortunately, if you run a WordPress-powered digital presence, you can easily set up a very inexpensive and highly professional web-based event booking solution.
Introducing …
Event Espresso – WordPress Event Management & Ticketing Registration Software
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration software enables you to easily create multiple events and begin receiving registrations literally in minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and process online bookings)
Event Espresso is a versatile and feature-packed software that gives you full control of the event registration management process.
Event Espresso lets you customize registration forms
You can employ a range of event registration strategies, from simple online enrolments and straight up ticket-selling, to creating custom registration forms in order to better understand your event participants, or integrating your event registration forms with social media and email marketing systems.
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: EE 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new Event Espresso 4 is completely different than the older Event Espresso 3, as the plugin has been revamped using a different structure to accommodate future growth. The EE 4 plugin platform has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and pricing. The developers aim to eventually retire Event Espresso 3, so keep this in mind as you learn more about the benefits and advantages of this plugin.
Learn more about the plugin here:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just some of the many benefits of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your website:
Hands-Free Event Registration Management
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your existing online presence into a fully-featured and automated event management website … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to seating capacity limits, multiple price levels and discount codes, to printable tickets and even seating charts.
Higher Business Productivity
By using a web-based event registration system like Event Espresso, you save time and improve your business productivity by literally doing away with the need to process registrations and signups manually.
Basically, you are making it easier for participants to register themselves.
Allowing your customers to do all of the data themselves frees up your time and lets you direct more resources on organizing a more unique event.
More Control Over The User Experience
As you will discover in a moment, Event Espresso gives you full control over the event management process that you want your clients to experience.
Some additional benefits include the following:
- Reduced Costs: The Event Espresso plugin is a very inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to building your own solution or using a third party provider. The cost is kept to a minimum by using a model where users pay for the core plugin (which suits the needs of most users) and then buy add-ons when you need extra functionality.
- Higher Sales: Event Espresso allows you to accept new event sign-ups 24/7. In addition, Event Espresso social sharing features and add-ons (see below) let people interested in attending your event invite other people they know who may also be interested.
- Paperless Event Sign Up Process: With Event Espresso, the event signup process is transacted wholly in digital form, eliminating traditional paper waste from tasks associated with enrollment.
- All Data Belongs To You. You control all the information you collect from event participants.
Event Espresso Features
The Event Espresso plugin delivers functionality to its users via standard features (these come with the plugin) and optional features that you can buy for an extra cost, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides a number of great features to WP users. Here are just some of these:
- Quick and simple to install and implement. Ready to start accepting registrations in minutes.
- Multiple Ticket And Pricing Options. Event Espresso lets you create multiple ticket types and set separate prices, maximum number of tickets, etc.
- WordPress Event Calendar. Customers can easily see your upcoming events and add these to their schedule using the WordPress calendar.
- Ticket Selector. Present multiple ticket options to prospects so they can purchase the ticket(s) that best fits their needs.
- Google Maps. Google Maps integration allows event managers to customize the look and control settings of Google Maps on your event listing and event details sections.
- Default Prices. Create events quickly and easily by pre-configuring default ticket prices.
- Discount Codes. You can leverage promotion and discount codes to encourage visitors to make a buying decision without delays, or simply make your events more affordable for others. Also useful for helping to increase sales of events close to deadlines.
- Contact Profiles And Contact List. Event Espresso 4 lets you know who your clients are and how they have done business with you.
- Waiting Lists. Interested persons can subscribe to a waiting list if your event has become sold out. Additionally, you can make it a requirement waiting list attendees pay for their spots if you plan to expand numbers for the event.
- Public Commenting. Add social a new level of engagement to your event page by encouraging potential attendees to ask questions about your event and past participants to post comments that can help others choose whether or not to sign up. Moderation settings for public commenting are set using the WP commenting section.
- SEO Friendly Event Page Web Links. Keyword-rich Web links take advantage of your WordPress site’s Permalinks configuration settings. “Pretty” web links with topic-relevant keywords enhance the context of your pages and improves your search rankings, helping you bring a more targeted audience to your events.
- Country-specific Settings. You can configure the country and currency settings to be used throughout Event Espresso, including currency name, currency symbols, decimal signs, characters and places, country codes, regions, and so on.
- Exportable Data. You can output all the data gathered from event participants into Excel or CSV format for creating advanced reports, devising marketing strategies, analyzing attendee statistics, etc..
- Visual Editor. Event Espresso uses the standard WP Visual editor, allowing you to quickly and easily insert graphic images and write your event descriptions without knowing HTML or CSS, just like any WP post.
- A Community Of Event Experts. Event Espresso lets you network with a community of experienced event managers, developers, designers, marketers and businesses who also use the plugin. You can interact with other members of the Event Espresso community via their community chat room, user support forums, job board, and social media pages on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Google+.
- Staff Manager. Save time and keep your data organized by reusing staff member profiles for multiple events or displaying their profile using a shortcode in an event description.
- Event Posts. Publish your events using pages or posts and take advantage of WordPress custom post types. You can even customize the templates to display event information in your own custom way.
Additional features include:
- Hooks, Actions And Filters. These features allow developers to implement safer and more reliable customizations and extensions to the Event Espresso software that are compatible with WordPress.
- Full Logging, Remote Logging. EE 4 allows you to create a log file with debugging data that can be helpful for web developers when troubleshooting.
- 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 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 includes 40+ additional features, including:
- Live-filtering when you search for events within the Event Espresso admin.
- Question groups that simplify the process of reusing a series of questions for similar events.
- Option to skip the confirmation page during the registration process.
Addons
As mentioned previously, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow software users to significantly enhance the functionality of the event management system.
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 the event does not have a featured image, a default image will be used.
- Recurring Events Dropdown Template Add on: The Recurring Events Drop-down custom template lets you organize many datetime events into a dropdown 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 also be customized to display the event thumbnail image instead of a date.
- Events Social Sharing Add-on: Add social sharing features to the end of your Event Espresso “thank you” page that allows your registrants to post a message about their event registration on Twitter and Facebook after booking.
- Custom Files Add-on: The Custom Files add-on provides PHP files that allow you to bypass certain aspects of the plugin.
- Seating Chart Addon: The seating chart addon is for venues and events that sell and reserve seats for attendees in advance. This is 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 from your WordPress site. The Seating Chart add-on lets you manage the environment for your attendees and design assigned seating charts and attach single pricing to each seat.
- Multiple Event Registration Add on: The Multi-Event registration add-on gives potential customers 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 addon, 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 Table Template Add on: The Events Table Template addon gives you 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 web developers to build their own custom templates using one of the templates provided as a source template.
- MailChimp Integration Add-on: The MailChimp add on lets you auto-register attendees to a chosen mailing autoresponder list or group within your MailChimp account.
Note: The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to the plugin, including new addons.
For full details about the newest Event Espreso features and addons, visit the plugin website here:
Customers – Testimonials
Here are some of the many testimonials that users have posted about Event Espresso:
”I want to commend you on a fabulous product which is just the right price for a small non-profit. People are happy with the registration process, as are we! …Thank you SO much for a great product.” Sandra Forero Bush, World Trade Center Tacoma
”Your plugin rocks! Seriously, saved me hours on the phone setting up attendance manually. Kudos. :)” William, Petruzzo Photography
”Thank you, we just did 2 sell out seminars of 50 attendees in 48 hours using Event Espresso and it was awesome. My wife was able to pick up on the processing backend with ease. You have done a great job on getting this system together – very simple, clear and well laid out With powerful functionality. I am so glad I dumped the old booking application we had and gave Event Espresso a go. Just wanted to say thanks, and thanks for the very patient, friendly and speedy assistance in helping me to get it all set up at the start. Many thanks to you and your team. A grateful customer.” Nicholas de Castella, Emotional Intelligence Trainings
Useful Tips
Whether you are a gym owner, trainer, conference promoter, or event professional, there are just endless possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso plugin.
After purchasing your copy of the plugin and becoming a licensed user, search the support forum for new ideas and practical ways to improve your event management workflow or improve the experience of your event registrants.
Product Support
Event Espresso works with with all WP plugins and themes that follow WordPress coding standards. If you have problems with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides great user support, as so 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
Event Espresso provides exceptional support that includes access to support forums, comprehensive online documentation with faqs, knowledgebase and how tos, custom development 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 developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely a solution you can depend on to manage your events.
Product Cost
Event Espresso is available in a number of editions, including a FREE basic edition (referred to as Event Espresso Decaf). For personal support and advanced software functionality, however, you will want to consider using one of the paid plugin editions below:
- Personal License Edition – This option allows you to configure Event Espresso on 1 domain only. Includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything License – This license lets you run Event Espresso on 1 site only. Includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium addons and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $279.95.
- Developer Edition – This lets you set up Event Espresso on 5 sites. Includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $249.95.
The price of the Event Espresso plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the plugin is being retailed for the amounts shown above. Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Manager And Registration System For WordPress
Please Note: The above reflects the pricing at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing 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 register for their newsletter when you visit their site to receive the latest information and updates.
Look up the plugin’s documentation pages to find answers to common questions about setting up and using Event Espresso, and visit the support forums if you have questions related to your particular situation, or to report issues and leave feedback.
For detailed installation and support documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso web site.
We Recommend
Event Espresso is the preferred WordPress event booking and ticketing manager software, used and trusted by thousands of users.
If you are a WordPress site owner and you intend to run an event that requires scheduling dates and venues, enrolling attendees, or reserving tickets or seating, then you will probably not find a more suitable WordPress plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Event Espresso – WordPress Event Registration & Ticketing Management System
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