Does your business currently run or plan to run events that need handling bookings or registrations, such as workshops, community classes, charity fund raisers, networking events, or even a large-scale event such as an art exhibition, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to register to attend or participate?
Managing event sign-ups is a complex process. You will most likely need to manage scheduling, available dates and spaces, registration numbers, data collection and storage, payments and invoicing, confirmations, reminders, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special needs and issuing tickets to event attendees.
There are many benefits to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can streamline your business processes, save time and reduce expenses, help you easily copy settings for previous events, give you more control, create a better client experience and grow your sales.
The problem is that this can be costly.
Fortunately, if you own a WordPress-powered site, you can set up an inexpensive and professional web-based event registration solution.
Presenting …
Event Espresso
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin for WordPress allows you to easily create multiple events and begin receiving bookings in minutes.
(Set up multiple events and receive online event bookings with Event Espresso)
Event Espresso is a flexible and feature-packed plugin that gives you full control over your event registration management process.
Create custom registration forms
You can employ a number of 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 an autoresponder system for ongoing updates.
View detailed information about your event attendees
Note: At the time of writing this article, Event Espresso offers two different versions of their software: EE 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new Event Espresso 4 is significantly different than the older Event Espresso 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 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 this plugin.
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your web site:
Hands-Free Event Registration Management
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your current website into a fully-featured and automated event management site … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to seating limits, multiple pricing options and discount codes, to printable tickets and seating charts.
Better 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 chore of processing registrations and sign-ups manually.
Basically, you are enabling participants to enroll by themselves.
Allowing your enrollees to do the data themselves frees you up from doing admin work and lets you invest more time on planning a better event.
More Control Over The User Experience
As you will see in a moment, Event Espresso gives you complete control over the event management process that you want your attendees to experience.
Some additional benefits and advantages include the following:
- Less Costs: Event Espresso gives you a very inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to developing your own solution or using a third-party service. This is made possible through a model where users pay for the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and then buy add ons when you need new features.
- Increased Sales: Event Espresso allows you to accept online event registrations outside normal business hours. In addition, Event Espresso social features and addons (see below) let people interested in registering for your event invite other people they know who may be interested in attending.
- Green Event SignUp Process: With Event Espresso, your event registration process remains wholly online, significantly reducing typical paper consumption from tasks related to administration.
- All Information Belongs To You. You control all the data you obtain from your event participants.
Features
Event Espresso delivers functionality to end-users via standard features (these come with the software) and optional features that you can buy for an additional cost, called add-ons.
Event Espresso offers many great built-in to WP users. Here are just some of these:
- Fast and simple to install and set up. Ready to use in minutes.
- Multiple Ticket And Pricing Options. Event Espresso lets you create as many different types of tickets as you need and specify prices, limits on ticket quantities, and more.
- Event Calendar. Attendees can easily see your upcoming events and add these to their schedule with the calendar.
- Ticket Selector. Present a number of ticket options to prospects so they can choose the ticket(s) that will best fit their needs.
- Intelligent Single Page Checkout Process. The Event Espresso 4 checkout process is smart, fast and intuitive. Registrants are given the option to automatically copy the primary registrant’s information for any additional participants.
- Spam Protection. Reduce the risk of spamming and robots creating fake registrations on your site with reCAPTCHA tools that validate human activity.
- Discount Codes. Offer promotional and discount codes to encourage prospects to take action now, or simply make your events more affordable for price-sensitive prospects. This is also practical if you want to increase sales of events close to timelines.
- Event Check-In List. Generate a list of attendees and check in everyone who attends.
- Waiting Lists. Latecomers can subscribe to a waiting list if your event has reached maximum capacity. You can also specify that wait-listed registrants pre-pay if you plan to expand numbers for your event.
- Event RSS Feeds. Provide automatic updates to blog readers, bring in more visitors and reach a wider number of prospects with the built-in XML RSS events feed.
- Keyword-Rich URLs. Keyword-rich event page Web links leverage your WP site’s Permalinks configuration settings. “Pretty” web links that include topic-relevant keywords add to the context of your content and is favored by search engines, helping you get 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.
- Default Tickets. If you create similar tickets for most of your events, you can easily set up as your default ticket for any new events simply by checking a box.
- Multiple Participant Enrollments. Event Espresso 4 allows a single person or a group to pay for multiple tickets and different types of tickets at the same time. You specify how many attendees can enrol in a single registration session by specifying either limits on ticket purchases per order, or per-ticket minimums and maximums.
- Automatic Software Upgrades. Event Espresso provides easy 1-click plugin updating to ensure that you have the latest features and to keep your plugin installation compatible with new versions of WordPress.
- Invoice Payment Reminders. Follow-up potential event clients who have not paid in full for their enrollment with a standard but personalized PDF invoice with just one click. Your invoices will reference pre-registered participants who have not paid their registration in full by name, give them the balance they owe, and include a link to the event details, a payment url and a url to download the invoice.
- Categorize Events. If you have multiple types of events like free and paid, conference speakers and mastermind sessions, different kinds of exercise classes, etc. you can categorize these to help event registrants to find what they’re looking for. You can list all events in a category on an event category page, make events searchable by category, and colour-code events on the Event Espresso events calendar to make them easier to find, as well as suggesting other events in the categories that appeal to your existing customers.
Additional features include:
- Define Extra Meta Information. This allows you to have more control and options over the content of your event pages and how your information displays to prospective customers.
- Full Logging & Remote Logging. EE 4 lets you generate a log file with debugging data that can be useful for web developers when diagnosing problems.
- Flexibility, Autonomy & Value: According to the philosophy stated on their 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 company operates on 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 comes with 40+ additional features, including:
- Duplicating events – simplifies the work of re-entering event details when adding new events.
- Default surcharge (the same as applying a service fee to tickets).
- Option to skip the confirmation page during registration.
Event Espresso Add-Ons
As well as an incredible range of features, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow users to further enhance the functionality of managing your event.
Some of these addons include:
- Events Vector Maps Template Add on: The Vector Maps custom events list template lets you display your scheduled events by location. There are 4 maps available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Recurring Events Drop-down Custom Template Add-on: The Recurring Events Drop-down custom template lets you organize the events with many datetimes into a drop-down list.
- Events Category Accordion Template Addon: The Category Accordion template displays the categories as a simple list. Clicking a category name shows all events related to that category and closes previously open categories.
- EE4 Events Social Sharing Add-on: Add social sharing features to the end of your Event Espresso “thank you” page that allows your attendees to share a message about their event registration on Twitter and Facebook after booking.
- Custom Files Add on: The Custom Files add-on allows you to bypass certain aspects of the plugin.
- Roles And Permissions Basic & Pro Add-on Editions: This add-on lets you include other staff in the event management process and give new users the capacity to create events or regional managers the ability 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 the events that others create. You can customize roles so that users do 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 control factors geographically for events and users, use the Roles and Permissions Pro add-on.
- EE4 Event Ticketing Addon: The Ticketing addon adds the capacity to generate tickets with bar codes. The Bar Scanning add on gives you 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 venues. People can either print out their tickets or display them on their mobile devices. The mobile app can be used for checking in or checking out registrants and to validate tickets.
- Events Table View Template Add on: The Events Table Template add-on provides you with 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 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 participants to a specified mailing list or group within your MailChimp account.
Note: The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to its plugin, including new add-ons.
To learn more about the newest Event Espreso features and add ons, visit the plugin website here:
Customer Feedback
Below are some of the many great testimonials that satisfied customers have written about Event Espresso:
”Event Espresso is one of the nicest Event Managers (WP Plugin) I have come across.” Joe Distefano, Citizen Joe
“I just completed my first event using Event Espresso. I really believe without Event Espresso my event would not have been the success it was.” Cathy Earle, Women Only Weekend
”I played around with the free version for a couple hours then purchased the Pro for a client. Love it and so do they! Sweetest Event plugin I have tried.” Bill Chambers, Bill Chambers Design
Useful Tips
Whether you are a gym owner, presenter, festival planner, or event professional, there are just endless possibilities of what you can do with the Event Espresso plugin.
After downloading your copy of the plugin and becoming a registered owner, spend a little time going through the user forum for inspiration and practical suggestions to improve your event management workflow and enhance the experience of your participants.
Product Support
Event Espresso is compatible with other WP plugins and WP themes that follow standard WP development guidelines. If you have problems with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides highly responsive support, as many of its customers attest:
“I’m really impressed with not only the application itself but the support. I have rarely seen such a responsive support staff than at EE. They rock…I highly recommend this plugin!” sock2me
The software provides robust support including access to a support forum, in-depth online documentation with faqs, knowledge base and how tos, priority 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 developers with a proven track record of support, so this is definitely software you can count on to manage your events.
Plugin Price
Event Espresso is available in various plugin editions, including a FREE basic edition (referred to as Event Espresso Decaf). For personal support and advanced plugin functionality, however, you should consider using one of the ”Pro” plugin editions below:
- Personal License – This allows you to set up Event Espresso on one site only. Includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $69.95.
- Everything Edition – This license enables you to configure Event Espresso on 1 site only. Includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add-ons and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $279.95.
- Developer Licensing – This lets you run Event Espresso on 5 domains. It includes 51+ Premium features, (addons 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 specials being offered. Currently, the software sells for the prices shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Espresso
Note: The pricing above was current when this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the site.
Additional Info
The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to the plugin. Make sure to register for their newsletter when you visit their site to receive the latest information and updates.
Look up the software’s online documentation pages for answers to common questions about setting up and how to use Event Espresso, and visit the support forums if you have questions related to your specific use-case, or to notify developers about issues and share feedback.
For detailed installation and support documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso product site.
We Recommend
Event Espresso is the preferred WordPress event registration and ticketing manager plugin, used by thousands of users.
If you own a WordPress website and you currently run an event that requires managing dates and venues (offline and online), enrolling attendees, or booking tickets or seating, then you will probably not find a more suitable solution for your needs than Event Espresso.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: Event Espresso
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