Does your business currently run or plan to run events that require managing registrations, such as seminars, group classes, charity fund raisers, marketing functions, or even a large-scale event such as an 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 complex process. You will probably have to manage scheduling, dates, attendee numbers, data processing and storage, payment processing and invoicing, confirmations, reminders, cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and delivering tickets to event registrants.
There are lots of benefits to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can make your business more efficient, save time and lower costs, help you easily duplicate repeat events, give you more control, improve user experience and increase your sales.
The problem is that setting this up can be quite costly.
The good news is that if you run a WordPress-based web site, you can easily install a very inexpensive and professional web-based event booking solution.
Announcing …
Event Espresso – Event Registration & Ticketing Management
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin for WordPress allows you to easily create your event and start processing registrations in minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and process online bookings)
Event Espresso is a versatile and feature-rich software that gives you complete control of the event registration management process.
Event Espresso lets you customize event registration forms
You can employ multiple event registration strategies, from simple online bookings and straight up ticket sales, to creating custom registration forms for collecting detailed information about your event attendees, or integrating your event bookings with social media sites like Facebook.
Access detailed information about event attendees
Important: At the time of writing this article, Event Espresso supports two different versions of their plugin: EE 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new EE 4 is completely different than the older EE 3, as it is being 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 developers aim to eventually migrate completely to EE 4, so keep this in mind as you learn more about this plugin.
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Benefits Of Using Event Espresso
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your site:
Automated Event Registration Management
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your existing digital presence into an automated and fully featured event management website … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to seating capacity limits, multiple pricing levels 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 practically eliminating the need to process registrations and signups manually.
Basically, you are facilitating attendees to enrol by themselves.
Allowing your clients to do all of the data entry frees up your time and lets you direct more of your attention on planning a better event.
More 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.
Additional benefits include:
- Reduced Costs: Event Espresso provides you with a very low cost online event registration management solution compared to building your own system or using a third party provider. This is made possible by using a model where you purchase the core plugin (which suits the needs of most users) and then buy add ons when you need additional functionality.
- Increased Sales: Event Espresso lets you accept online sign-ups any time of day or night. In addition, Event Espresso social sharing and marketing addons (see below) let people who are interested in attending your event invite friends who may also be interested.
- Paperless Event SignUp Process: With Event Espresso, your event sign up process remains wholly online, reducing typical paper consumption from tasks related to enrollment.
- Own Your Data. You own all the data collected from your event participants.
Plugin Features
Event Espresso provides functionality to users via built-in features (these are included with the software) and optional features that you can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides many features to WP users. Here are just a few:
- Fast and easy to install and set up. Be up and running in minutes.
- Customized Event Registration Forms. Event Espresso lets you gather unique information using a custom event registration form on your web pages to create a unique experience for your customers.
- Customized Confirmation Emails. Set up automated booking and payment notification emails to communicate with event participants.
- Ticket Selector. Present several ticket options to registrants so they can choose the ticket(s) that best fits their needs.
- Google Maps. Google Maps integration allows you to customize the settings of Google Maps on your event listing and event details sections.
- Default Price Types. Price types let you create new prices that adjust the default ticket pricing for your default ticket.
- In-App Documentation. Event Espresso 4 includes three detailed in-app documentation systems: Help Tours, Help Tabs and Tool Tips.
- Event Check-In List. Generate a list of registrants and confirm everyone who has attended.
- Admin Pre-approval. Be selective about who can and cannot attend your events.
- Private Commenting On Contacts. Record comments about contacts on their profile. Private commenting enables you to keep a record of when event registrants contacted you, your internal comments, and how you’ve interacted with your customers.
- Optimized For The Latest WP Version. The EE 4 user interface follows all WordPress guidelines to help you create aesthetically enhanced event pages that are easier to use and mobile-friendly.
- Country-specific Settings. Event managers can configure the country and currency settings that will be used when promoting events, such as currency name, currency symbols, decimal characters and places, country codes, states or provinces, and so on.
- Default Tickets. If you create identical tickets for many of your events, you can automatically set up as your default ticket for any new events simply by ticking a checkbox.
- Multiple Participant Enrolments. Event Espresso 4 allows an individual or an organization to purchase multiple tickets and different ticket types at once. Event managers can control how many attendees are able to enroll in a single booking session by specifying either limits on ticket purchases per order, or per-ticket minimums and maximums.
- A Community Of Event Experts. Event Espresso lets you network with a community of experienced event managers, software programmers, designers, web marketers and businesses who also use the plugin. You can engage 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+.
- Social Sharing. Event participants and your site visitors can help increase exposure for your events using social sharing buttons.
- 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 events in your own unique way.
Additional features include:
- Object-Oriented Programming. Event Espresso is simple enough for general WordPress users, and also extremely robust and customizable for higher end users and developers. The bottom line is that by using Object-oriented programming (OOP), EE 4 allows for more complex developments and customizations to the application.
- Maintenance Mode. You can pause registration capabilities for regular website visitors whenever site maintenance is needed. You can continue to work on your event pages during maintenance mode.
- Autonomy, Flexibility & Value: According to the mission statement on their website, Event Espresso’s objective 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 company operates on a model that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money as a result.
The premium version of Event Espresso also comes with over 40 added features, including:
- Live-filtering when you search for events within the Event Espresso admin.
- Default surcharge (similar to adding a service tax to tickets).
- Default payment status.
Event Espresso Add-Ons
As mentioned previously, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow end-users to further expand the capabilities of events.
Some of these addons 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 Management Addon: The Recurring Events manager add-on enables you to put events on autopilot by scheduling recurring events weeks or months … even years ahead. You can add as many future events as you want. Event Espresso will automatically open and close bookings for all recurring events.
- Events Category Accordion Template Add-on: The Category Accordion template displays event categories as a simple list. Clicking the category name displays all events related to that category and closes previously open categories.
- Social Coupons Integration Addon: If your website is featured on Groupon.com you can easily accept Groupon codes to your events. You can also specify whether events accept the social coupons or not.
- Custom Files Add on: The Custom Files addon provides PHP files that allow you to bypass certain aspects of the Event Espresso plugin.
- Roles And Permissions Basic And Pro Add on Editions: This add on lets you involve your staff in your organization to help manage your events 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, so others can help you manage your events or the 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 parts 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 add-on.
- Event Ticketing Addon: The Ticketing add-on adds the capacity to create tickets with bar codes. The Bar Scanning add-on adds the ability to scan ticket bar codes. The ticketing add-on includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple bar code types are included for handling check-in scans at the venue door. People 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 registrants and to validate tickets.
- EE4 Events Table View Template Add-on: The Events Table Template addon gives you a simple and easy-to-use system that lets you change the look and feel 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 their own custom templates using one of the templates provided as a source template.
- JSON API Add on: The new Event Espresso JSON API addon enables other software 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 software, including new addons.
For more information about the latest Event Espreso features and add ons, check out the plugin here:
User Feedback
Here are just some of the many great testimonials that satisfied users have posted about Event Espresso:
”Congratulations on an absolutely fantastic plugin. I’m really impressed with its functionality and add on features and will definitely upgrade my client’s production site to the premium version (when ready for launch) to incorporate all the features. As I have told another client “this plugin is the cat’s meow”.” Pete Mansel
”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 can’t even imagine what I would want the plugin to do that it doesn’t already do. I’m really happy with the features.” Jim Harmer, Improve Photography
Event Espresso Tips
Whether you are a motivational speaker, presenter, event promoter, or event management consultant, there are simply unlimited possibilities of what you can do with the Event Espresso plugin.
After downloading the plugin and becoming a licensed user, go through the support forum for useful ideas and practical ways to streamline your event management workflow or enhance the experience of your participants.
Support
Event Espresso is fully compatible with all WordPress plugins and WordPress themes that follow standard WP coding rules. If you experience issues with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides excellent support, as so many of its satisfied plugin end-users confirm:
”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 plugin provides robust support with access to support forums, comprehensive online documentation with faqs, knowledge base 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 a well-staffed team of experienced WordPress web developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely software you can count on to manage your events.
Software Pricing
Event Espresso is available in various editions, including a FREE basic edition (referred to as Event Espresso Decaf). For support and advanced software functionality, however, you need to consider using one of the premium plugin versions below:
- Personal Edition – This license option allows you to run Event Espresso on one domain only. Price includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $69.95.
- Everything Licensing – This edition allows you to set up Event Espresso on 1 site only. It includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium addons and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $279.95.
- Developer Licensing – This lets you configure Event Espresso on 5 domains. It includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and 1 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 specials being offered. Currently, the plugin is selling for the pricing shown above. Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Espresso
Note: The pricing above was current at the time this article was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller when you visit the site.
Additional Information
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.
Search the plugin’s online documentation pages for answers to common questions about setting up and using Event Espresso, and visit the support forums if you have questions related to a particular situation, or to report problems and give feedback.
For detailed documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso product information pages.
Our Recommendation
Event Espresso is the leading WP event booking and ticketing manager plugin, used and trusted by thousands of companies.
If you are a WordPress user and you intend to run any event that involves scheduling dates, times and venues, booking participants, or selling seating, then you will probably not find a better WordPress plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Event Espresso – Event Management & Registration System For WordPress
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