Does your company currently run or plan to run events that need co-ordinating bookings or registrations, such as seminars, community courses, not-for-profit fund raisers, marketing functions, or even a large-scale event like a trade show, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to book to attend or participate?
Managing event sign-ups can be a complicated and time-consuming process. You may have to co-ordinate calendar schedules, available dates and spaces, attendee numbers, data collection, payments and sending invoices, confirmations, reminders and notifications, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special needs and delivering tickets to attendees.
There are lots of benefits to setting up an online event registration system. It can streamline your business processes, save time and reduce expenses, help you easily reproduce recurring events, give event managers more control, improve client experience and increase your sales.
The problem is that setting up an online event booking system can be quite expensive.
Fortunately, if you run a WordPress-powered web site, you can easily install a very inexpensive and highly professional web-based event registration system.
Presenting …
Event Espresso – Event Registration & Ticketing Manager
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin lets you easily schedule your event and begin accepting online registrations in minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and take online bookings)
Event Espresso is a flexible and feature-rich software that gives you complete control over the event registration management process.
Create custom registration forms
You can use multiple event registration strategies, from simple online enrolments and straight up ticket-selling, to setting up custom registration forms in order to better understand your attendees, or integrating your event registration forms with an autoresponder system for ongoing updates.
Access detailed information about event attendees
Please Note: At the time of writing this review, Event Espresso offers two different versions of their software: 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 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 EE 4, so keep this in mind as you learn more about this plugin.
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Benefits Of Using Event Espresso
Here are just some of the many benefits of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your website or blog:
Automated Event Registration Management And Ticketing System
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your current website or blog into an automated and fully featured event management site … from custom registration forms and automated response emails, to attendee limits, multiple pricing options and discount codes, to printable tickets and even seating charts.
Increased Business Productivity
By using an online event registration system like Event Espresso, you save time and improve your business productivity by literally eliminating the chore of processing registrations and bookings manually.
Basically, you are making it easier for participants to enroll on their own.
Allowing your participants to do all of the data themselves frees you up from doing administration and lets you focus more time on organizing a memorable event.
More Control Over The User Experience
As you will learn shortly, Event Espresso gives you more control over the event management process that you want your users to experience.
Some additional benefits and advantages include:
- Reduced Costs: The Event Espresso plugin gives you a very inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to building your own software or using a 3rd-party service provider. The cost is kept low by using a model where you buy the core plugin (which suits the needs of most users) and then purchase add ons only when you need additional functionality.
- More Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept new sign-ups 24 hours a day. In addition, Event Espresso social and marketing features and addons (see below) let people interested in attending your event invite others who may be interested.
- Green Event Registration Process: With Event Espresso, the event sign up process can be performed wholly online, reducing traditional paper consumption from tasks related to enrollment.
- Own Your Data. You own all the data obtained from your event participants.
Features
Event Espresso provides functionality to end-users through standard features (these come with the plugin) and optional features that you can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides a number of built-in to WordPress users. Here are just a few of these:
- Quick and easy to install and set up. Ready to use in no time.
- Multiple Times and Dates Per Event. In Event Espresso 4, events can have many dates and times (datetimes), that these can be managed from a single event.
- Customizable Event Designs. You can customize your events and signup page using Event Espresso’s unlimited template options and components, and HTML or CSS.
- Collect Payments. Event Espresso seamlessly integrates with payment gateways, allowing you to collect money prior to running the events.
- Custom Post Types. Integrate Event Espresso into your theme and display venue information throughout other areas of your site.
- Default Price Types. Price types let event managers create new prices that adjust the base ticket pricing for your system-default ticket.
- Promotional Codes. You can leverage promotion and discount codes to incentivize people to register immediately, or simply make your offers more appealing for others. Also useful for helping to increase sales of events close to timelines.
- Contact Profiles And Contact List. EE 4 lets you know who your clients are and how you’ve done past business with your clients. The Contact Profile page records the name, biography, contact information, event registration history, private comments, and more about each client.
- Ticketless Events. Create events without making it necessary for participants to book tickets. Event Espresso can be used for all types of events, not only those that accept tickets.
- Public Commenting. Add social interactivity to your event page by allowing potential prospects to interact with you online via commenting and past participants to post comments that can help others choose whether or not to enroll. Moderation settings for public commenting are configured via the WP built-in commenting system.
- Works With The Most Up-To-Date WP Version. The Event Espresso 4 user interface follows all WordPress guidelines to help you create visually enhanced event pages that are responsive and mobile-friendly.
- Your Organization Settings. Configure your organization’s profile to display throughout Event Espresso and your front-end templates. Organization data include: business name, address, city, state, country, zip code, primary contact email address, telephone, tax number, logo, Facebook URL, Twitter URL, LinkedIn profile URL, Pinterest profile URL, Google+ profile URL, Instagram profile URL.
- Exportable Data. You can output all the information collected from event customers into Excel or CSV format for compiling reports, devising marketing strategies, reviewing attendee statistics, etc..
- Event Venue Manager. The venue management feature in Event Espresso 4 allows information about venues to appear throughout the Event Espresso admin and the front end of your site to inform attendees of your event’s location. The venue record has many of the standard WordPress settings such as tags, categories, discussion settings, comments, etc., but also includes details like venue capacity, venue site URL, phone number, venue address, maps, etc. You can also display venue profiles on different locations on your WordPress theme as well as on a venue listing page on your site where you can set up and display venue profiles for multiple events or display all the events for a particular venue.
- Registrant Records. Manage your attendee’s profiles and payment history and keep all of their records organized and easily within reach.
- Social Sharing. Event participants and website visitors can tell others about your events using social share buttons.
- Categorize Events. If you have several different event types such as free and paid, workshops and breakout sessions, different types of exercise classes, etc. you can categorize these to help your registrants to find what they’re searching for. You can list all events in a category on a custom event category page, make the events searchable by category, and color-code your events on the Event Espresso events calendar to make these easier to find, in addition to suggesting other events in the categories that appeal to your existing customers.
Additional features include:
- Define Extra Meta Information. This allows developers to have more control and options over the content of your event page and how the information displays to your prospective event attendees.
- Full Logging & Remote Logging. Event Espresso 4 lets you create a log file with debugging data which can be useful for developers when troubleshooting.
- Flexibility, Autonomy & 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 mission, the software has been built using a modular and highly efficient model that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money in the process.
The premium version of Event Espresso also includes 40+ added features, including:
- Live-filtering when you search for events inside the Event Espresso admin.
- Default surcharge (similar to applying a service tax to all tickets).
- Category titles and descriptions on event listings.
Add-Ons
As well as a comprehensive number of features, Event Espresso provides “addons”, which allow plugin users to significantly 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 four maps available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Recurring Events Manager Add on: The Recurring Events manager add on enables you to put events on autopilot by scheduling recurring events weeks or months … even years in advance. You can create as many future events as you want. Event Espresso will then automatically open and close registrations for all recurring events.
- Events Calendar Table Template Addon: The Calendar Table template is a list template with a bold date and customizable “register now” button. The template can be customized to display the event thumbnail instead of a date.
- Social Media Buttons Add-on: The social media addon displays Facebook, Twitter and Google+ buttons in your events. The Social Media add on comes free with all of the Event Espresso support licenses.
- Custom Template Add-on: The Custom Template addon is capable of displaying your event lists in a variety of visually exciting ways.
- Roles And Permissions Basic And Pro Addon Versions: This add on lets you involve others 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 WordPress users roles and give them different permissions with different capabilities, so your staff can help you manage your events or events that others create. You can customize roles so that users do not have access to certain parts of your WP dashboard and/or certain areas 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.
- Multiple Event Registration Add-on: The Multiple Event registration addon gives potential customers the ability to book 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 cart. With the Multi-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 Add on: This WordPress events calendar displays events and categories of events using a nice graphical calendar.
- MailChimp Integration Add-on: The MailChimp add-on lets you automatically register attendees to a chosen mailing list or group within MailChimp.
Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to its software, including new addons.
To learn more about the latest Event Espreso features and add ons, check out the plugin here:
Customer Feedback
Below are just some of the many great testimonials that plugin users have written 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
”I have to say that it has been the right choice for me…I’ve been extremely pleased with the way my site is working.” Robin, RobinTime
”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
Plugin Tips
Whether you are a gym owner, teacher, conference promoter, or event consultant, there are simply countless possibilities of what you can do with the Event Espresso software.
After downloading the plugin and becoming a licensed user, visit the support forum for tips and practical suggestions to streamline your event management process or improve the experience of your participants.
Support
Event Espresso works with with other WordPress plugins and WordPress themes that follow WordPress coding standards. If you experience issues with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides great end-user support, as many of its customers confirm:
”By far, the customer service experience with Event Espresso has been the best of any WordPress Theme or Paid Plugin that I’ve used in the past two years!” Megan Murray, Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe
Event Espresso provides comprehensive support including access to support forums, 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 web developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely software you can rely on to organize and manage your events.
Product Price
Event Espresso is available in a number of editions, including a FREE basic edition (called Event Espresso Decaf). For personal support and advanced plugin features, however, you need to consider downloading one of the ”Pro” plugin versions below:
- Personal License – This allows you to install Event Espresso on 1 site only. Includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Cost = $69.95.
- Everything License – This lets you set up Event Espresso on 1 domain only. It includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add ons and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $279.95.
- Developer Licensing – This license allows you to set up Event Espresso on five domains. Includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Cost = $249.95.
Current pricing for the Event Espresso plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the software is selling for the amounts shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Manager And Ticketing Registration System For WordPress
Note: The above reflects the pricing when this review was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller when you visit the website.
Additional Info
The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to the software. Make sure to stay subscribed to their customer update list to receive the latest information and updates.
Look up the software’s online documentation tools to find answers to common questions about setup and using Event Espresso, and the support forums for questions related to your particular use-case, or to notify developers about problems and leave feedback.
For detailed installation and support documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso product website.
Our Recommendation
Event Espresso is the leading WP event registration and ticketing manager plugin, used by thousands of people.
If you are a WordPress site owner and you plan to run any event that involves scheduling dates and venues, registering attendees, and/or booking tickets, then you will probably not find a better solution for your needs than Event Espresso.
To learn more, check out the plugin here: Event Espresso – WordPress Event Management And Ticket Registration Plugin
***