Do you currently run or plan to run events that require co-ordinating bookings or registrations, such as workshops, training classes, non-profit fund-raisers, networking events, or even a big event like a dance party, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to register to attend?
Managing event sign-ups is a time-consuming process. You may be required to manage event schedules, available dates and spaces, attendee numbers, data collection, collecting payments and sending invoices, confirmations and reservations, reminders and notifications, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and providing tickets to event registrants.
There are many benefits to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can streamline your business processes, save time and lower costs, help you easily reproduce repeat events, give you more control, improve client experience and increase your sales.
The problem is that this can be costly.
The good news is that if you run a WordPress-powered site, you can download and install a very inexpensive and professional web-based event registration solution.
Announcing …
Event Espresso
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin allows you to easily create an event and begin receiving registrations in just a few minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and process online bookings)
Event Espresso is a feature-rich software that gives you full control over the event registration management process.
Customize event registration forms
You can use a number of event registration strategies, from simple online sign-ups and straight up ticket-selling, to setting up custom registration forms in order to better understand your attendees, or integrating your event bookings with social media and email marketing tools.
View detailed information about event attendees
Note: Currently, Event Espresso provides two different versions of their software: EE 3 and EE 4. The new EE 4 is significantly different than the older EE 3, as the software has been rebuilt using a different structure to enable future growth and expansion. The Event Espresso 4 plugin platform has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and pricing. The company plans to eventually transition completely to Event Espresso 4, so keep this in mind as you read more about this plugin.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here are just a few 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 existing online presence into a feature-rich and professional event management website … from custom registration forms and automated response emails, to attendee limits, multiple pricing levels and discount codes, to printable tickets and even seating charts.
Increased Business Productivity
By using a web-based event registration system like Event Espresso, you save time and increase your business productivity by practically eliminating the chore of processing registrations manually.
Essentially, you are making it easier for participants to perform the registration themselves.
Allowing your participants to do the data entry frees you up from doing administration and lets you concentrate more of your attention on delivering a better event.
More Control Over The User Experience
As you will discover in a moment, Event Espresso gives you more control over the event management and booking process that you want your clients to experience.
Some additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Less Costs: Event Espresso is a very inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to building your own system or using a third party provider. The cost is kept to a minimum by using a model where Event Espresso users purchase the core plugin (which suits the needs of most users) and purchase add ons when you need additional functionality.
- Increased Sales: Event Espresso allows you to accept new signups any time of day or night. Not only that, but, Event Espresso social features and add-ons (see below) let people interested in attending your event invite their friends who may be interested in attending.
- Green Event SignUp Process: With Event Espresso, your event booking process is conducted entirely online, eliminating traditional paper waste from tasks associated with enrollment.
- All Information Belongs To You. You control all the information you obtain from your event attendees.
Plugin Features
The Event Espresso plugin delivers functionality to end-users through standard features (these come with the software) and additional features that customers can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso offers many unique features to WordPress users. Here are just a few of these:
- Quick and easy to install and set up. Ready to use in very little time.
- Multiple Ticket And Pricing Options. Event Espresso lets you configure as many different types of tickets as you need and set separate pricing options, limits on ticket quantities, etc.
- Event Calendar. Participants can easily find your upcoming events and add these to their schedule with a calendar.
- Ticket Selector. Present multiple ticket options to prospective attendees so they can purchase the ticket(s) that will best fit their needs.
- Google Maps. Google Maps integration allows event managers to configure the look and control settings of Google Maps on your event listing and event details pages.
- Spam Protection. Prevent the risk of spamming and bot software programs making fake registrations on your web site with reCAPTCHA tools that provide human validation.
- Discount And Promotional Codes. You can leverage promotional and multiple discount codes to encourage people to take action now, or make your events more affordable for others. This is also practical for helping to sell-out events close to deadlines.
- Event Check-In List. Generate a list of registrants and check-in those who have attended.
- No Ticket Events. Set up events without requiring registrants to book tickets. Use Event Espresso for all forms of events, not only those that need tickets.
- RSS Event Feeds. Provide automatic updates to your users, drive quality traffic and reach a wider audience with the built-in XML RSS events feed.
- Works With The Most Up-To-Date Version Of WP. The EE 4 user interface follows the WordPress guidelines to help you create beautiful event pages that are easier to use and mobile-friendly.
- Easy Event Management. Event Espresso puts you in full control of all aspects of your event’s registration and ticketing, and also lets you automate the process with event management tools that include staff and venue manager, customizable event designs, payment processing and handling, list waiting, attendee limits, printable tickets and more.
- Import Events. EE 4 provides an advanced importing feature that allows you to import bulk event data all at one time. You can export, edit and upload information about events, datetimes, tickets, prices, custom registration questions, venues, terminology, taxonomies, term relationships and more.
- WYSIWYG Editor. Event Espresso uses the native WordPress WYSIWYG editor, so you can quickly and easily add photos and format your content without having to know HTML or CSS, just like any WP post or page.
- Attendee Profiles. Manage each registrant’s profiles and payment history and keep all of their records organized.
- Invoice Payment Reminders. Follow-up potential event attendees who have not fully paid for their enrollment with a standard but personalized invoice with one click. Your invoices will address registered attendees who have not paid their registration yet by name, display the amount they owe, and include a link to the event details, a payment link and a link where they can download a PDF invoice.
- Accurate Event Attendee Management. You control your participants’ date; who has registered, which event they have booked and how much they have paid. With the attendee manager, you can get an overview of registered attendees and their payment status, easily add/edit attendee records and payments, export an event attendee list to Excel for additional uses, send custom payment reminders and receipts and send messages to your event registrants on a person-by-person basis or all at once.
Additional features include:
- Hooks, Actions & Filters. These allow developers to implement safer and more reliable customizations and extensions to the Event Espresso plugin that are 100% compatible with WordPress.
- Metabox Management & Organization. Event Espresso lets you leverage the WordPress user interface, which gives you the ability to reorder the user interface to match your workflow processes. Each control box can be collapsed, re-arranged or entirely deleted from the workflow configuration.
- Flexibility, Autonomy & Value For Money: According to the philosophy stated on their web site, 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 goals, 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 provides you with 40+ additional features, including:
- Live-filtering when searching for events inside the Event Espresso admin.
- Question groups that make it easy to reuse the same questions for similar events.
- Default payment status.
Event Espresso Add-Ons
As mentioned earlier, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow customers to significantly expand the functionality of events.
Some of these add-ons include:
- EE4 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 Drop-down Template Addon: The Recurring Events Drop-down custom template lets you organize the events with many datetimes into a dropdown list.
- Events Date Range Template Add on: The Date Range custom event list template allows your users to search for events that take place in a certain date range.
- Social Media Buttons Add-on: The social media addon displays Facebook, Twitter and Google+ buttons in your events. The Social Media addon comes free with any of the Event Espresso support licenses.
- Custom Files Addon: The Custom Files addon provides PHP files that allow you to bypass certain aspects of the plugin.
- Roles And Permissions Basic & Pro Add on Editions: This addon lets you involve other users in the event management process and give new users the ability to create events or regional managers the capacity 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 privileges, allowing staff to help you manage your events or the 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 areas 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 & Bar Scanning Add-on: The Ticketing addon gives you the ability to create tickets with bar codes. The Bar Scanning add-on gives you the ability to scan ticket bar codes. The ticketing addon includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple barcode types are included for managing check-in scans at the venue door. Customers 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 Calendar Add-on: This WordPress events calendar displays events and event categories via an attractive graphical calendar.
- Infusionsoft Integration Addon: With the Event Espresso 4 Infusionsoft integration all-in-one sales and marketing software add-on, you can completely automate your customer relations and email marketing campaigns to seamlessly capture registrant data, track enrollments, and accept payments from your Event Espresso powered website.
Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to the software, including new add-ons.
To learn more about the newest Event Espreso features and addons, check out the plugin here:
User Feedback
Here are just some of the many testimonials that plugin users have written about Event Espresso:
”Event Espresso is so easy to use yet feature rich and stable. It is a cornerstone of our site and our success.” Fraser Barner, Speaker’s Lab
”Customizing an Event Registration plugin for WordPress by @EventEspresso. Love the pro version. Highly Recommended!” Joshua Garity
”Hello. I wanted to say that I’ve purchased Event Espresso twice now for two different organizations and have had great success with the purchases. Outside of photography, I also build small websites with WordPress as the CMS. I built two websites for two different martial arts organizations who host yearly seminars and tournaments. The plug in has provided a way for attendees to sign up online from both Canada and the United States with ease, and also allowed the organizations to easily manage payments, attendee lists, and many other aspects of the events. Thanks to Seth for creating such a great plug in, and for your constant support!” James Zedd, James Zedd Photography
Plugin Tips
Whether you are a motivational speaker, teacher, festival planner, or event management professional, there are simply unlimited possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso software.
After downloading your copy of the plugin and becoming a registered user, go through the forums for useful ideas and practical ways to streamline your event management process and improve the experience of your event attendees.
Product Support
Event Espresso works with with all WP plugins and themes that follow standard WordPress development guidelines. If you do need support with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides great support, as so many of its satisfied plugin customers confirm:
”These guys are right on any problem or issue or even general questions. You can’t really put a value high enough on the kind of support these guys offer.” Mark Wigston, Muskoka Graphics
Event Espresso provides amazing support including access to support forums, comprehensive online documentation with faqs, knowledgebase and how tos, priority 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 web developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely a solution you can depend on to run and manage your events.
Event Espresso Price
Event Espresso is available in a number of editions, including a FREE basic edition (named Event Espresso Decaf). For support and advanced software options, however, you should consider downloading one of the ”Pro” plugin editions below:
- Personal License – This option lets you install Event Espresso on 1 domain only. It includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything Licensing – This 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. Cost = $279.95.
- Developer License – This edition lets you install Event Espresso on 5 sites. Includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $249.95.
Pricing for the Event Espresso plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the plugin retails for the prices shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticketing Management
Note: The pricing above was current when this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the website.
Additional Info
The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to its plugin. Make sure to remain subscribed to their customer update list to receive the latest information and updates.
Search the software’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 a particular situation, or to notify developers about errors and leave feedback.
For all documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso website.
The Bottom Line
Event Espresso is the leading WordPress event registration and ticketing manager software, used by thousands of users.
If you are a WordPress user and you currently run an event that involves managing dates, times and venues (offline and online), enrolling attendees, and/or reserving tickets, then you will probably not find a better plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Event Espresso – WordPress Event Manager & Ticketing Registration Software
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