Does your company currently run or plan to run events that require managing bookings, such as workshops, group courses, charity fundraisers, corporate conferences, or even a big event such as a show, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to book to attend?
Co-ordinating event registrations is a time-consuming process. You may have to manage scheduling, available dates and seating, participant numbers, data entry, collecting payments and sending invoices, confirmations and reservations, reminders, cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special needs and providing tickets to attendees.
There are many benefits to setting up an online event registration system. It can streamline your business processes, save time and lower costs, help you easily copy settings for previously-run events, give you more control, create a more enjoyable user experience and grow your sales.
The problem is that setting this up can be costly.
Fortunately, if you run a WordPress-based web site, you can easily set up a very inexpensive and professional web-based event registration system.
Announcing …
Event Espresso
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin for WP lets you easily schedule your event and start processing online registrations literally in minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and accept online registrations)
Event Espresso is a versatile and feature-packed application that gives you complete control over the event registration management process.
Customize event registration forms
You can employ a range of event registration strategies, from simple online enrolments and straight up selling tickets, 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 follow-ups.
Access detailed information about event attendees
Important: Currently, Event Espresso offers two different versions of their software: EE 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new EE 4 is impressively different than the older Event Espresso 3, as the software has been revamped using a different structure to allow for future growth. The Event Espresso 4 plugin platform has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and price. The company plans to eventually migrate completely to Event Espresso 4, so keep this in mind as you read more about the benefits and features of using the plugin.
More info:
Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your web site:
Automated Event Registration Management
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your current website or blog into a fully-featured event management site … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to attendee limits, multiple pricing levels and discount codes, to printable tickets and even seating charts.
Higher Business Productivity
By using an online event registration system like Event Espresso, you save time and increase your business productivity by virtually eliminating the chore of processing registrations and sign-ups manually.
Basically, you are enabling participants to perform the enrollment process themselves.
Allowing your clients to do the data themselves frees you up from doing admin work and lets you concentrate more attention on planning a more enjoyable event.
Complete Control Over The User Experience
As you will see shortly, Event Espresso gives you complete control over the event management process that you want your customers to experience.
Additional benefits of the plugin include the following:
- Reduced Costs: The Event Espresso plugin provides you with a very inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to other options or using a 3rd-party service provider. This is made possible by using a model where you buy the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and buy optional add-ons when you need extra functionality.
- More Sales: Event Espresso allows you to accept online signups outside normal business hours. In addition, Event Espresso social and marketing add ons (see below) let people interested in attending your event invite other people they know who may also be interested in attending.
- Green Event SignUp Process: With Event Espresso, the event booking process can remain entirely in digital form, eliminating traditional paper consumption from tasks associated with admin and record-keeping.
- Own Your Information. You own all the information you obtain from event attendees.
Features
The Event Espresso software provides functionality to users via built-in features (these are included with the plugin) and optional features that you can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides many built-in to web site owners. Here are just a few:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Be up and running in minutes.
- Multiple Times and Dates Per Event. In Event Espresso 4, events can have many dates and times (datetimes), and these can be managed from a single event.
- WordPress Event Calendar. Registrants can easily find your upcoming events and add these to their schedule using the WordPress calendar.
- Tax Administration Options. Event Espresso 4 provides a number of options to manage taxes for an event and provide reports of tax fees to customers when purchasing tickets. You can administer taxes globally and on a per-ticket basis.
- Custom Post Types. You can Event Espresso into your theme and reuse events data throughout other areas of your site.
- Spam Protection. Prevent the chance of spammers and robots making fake registrations on your website with reCAPTCHA option to authenticate human activity.
- Mobile Registration And Ticketing Apps. The Event Espresso mobile registration system allows you to validate tickets, speed up in-venue registrations, create various check-in “stations” and track event participants.
- Event Check-In List. Generate an exportable list of event attendees and check-in everyone who attends.
- Waiting Lists. Prospective attendees can subscribe to a waiting list if your event has reached capacity. You can also specify that wait-list registrants pay for their spots if you plan to add more capacity for your event.
- XML RSS Event Feeds. Keep your users up-to-date about your events, bring in more visitors and reach a wider audience with the built-in XML RSS events feed.
- Works With The Most Up-To-Date WordPress Version. The Event Espresso 4 user interface follows all WordPress guidelines to help you build highly aesthetic event pages that are responsive and mobile-friendly.
- Your Organization Settings. you can configure your profile to display throughout Event Espresso and your front-end templates. The organization information include: organization name, street address, city, state, country, zip/postal code, primary contact email address, phone, tax number, business logo, Facebook URL, Twitter URL, LinkedIn profile URL, Pinterest URL, Google+ profile URL, Instagram URL.
- Import Events. Event Espresso 4 provides a CSV-based importing feature that allows you to quickly upload a lot of event data all at one time. You can export, edit and upload data for events, datetimes, ticketing details, prices, custom registration questions, venue info, terminology, taxonomies, term relationships and more.
- Event Venue Profiles. The venue management feature in EE 4 allows information about a venue to appear throughout the Event Espresso admin and the front-end of your website to inform users of your event’s location. The venue profile displays many of the standard WP settings such as tags, categories, discussion settings, comments, etc., but also includes venue details such as venue seating capacity, venue website, phone number, venue location details, map, etc. You can also list venues in specific sections in your theme and on a venue listing page on your website where you can set up and display venue profiles for multiple events or display all the events for a given venue.
- Registrant Records. You can manage each attendee’s profile information and payment history and keep all of their information organized and easily accessible.
- Team Member Manager. Save time and keep your information organized by reusing staff profiles for multiple events or displaying profile information such as team member’s contact information, resume and photo using a shortcode in an event description.
- Attendee Reporting. Quick-view event reporting provides you with data of your registrations and transactions, enabling you to measure the performance of your events with the aggregate number of registrations and amount of revenue you’ve collected.
Additional features include:
- Hooks, Actions & Filters. These features allow you to implement safer and more reliable customizations and extensions to the Event Espresso application that are compatible with WordPress.
- Maintenance Mode. You can pause registration capabilities for normal website traffic when you need to perform maintenance on your website. You can still work on your content during maintenance mode.
- 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 objectives, the software has been built using a modular and highly effective 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+ additional features, including:
- Email shortcodes that includes registrant data in confirmation emails and email newsletters.
- Question groups that make it easy to reuse a group of questions for similar events.
- Default payment status.
Event Espresso Add-Ons
As well as a very large number of features, Event Espresso provides “addons”, which allow software users to significantly expand the functionality of events.
Some of these add ons include:
- Events Vector Maps Template Add on: The Vector Maps custom events list template allows you to display upcoming events by location. There are four maps available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Recurring Events Dropdown Template Add on: The Recurring Events Drop-down custom template lets you organize events with many datetimes into a dropdown list.
- Events Date Range Template Add on: The Date Range custom event list template enables your users to browse for events that occur within 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 add on is included free with all of the Event Espresso support licenses.
- Custom Template Add on: The Custom Template add-on is capable of displaying your events in a number of exciting and interesting ways.
- Roles And Permissions Basic And Pro Addon Versions: This addon lets you involve other staff in the event management process and give new users permission 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 other people create. You can customize roles so that users do 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 have geographic responsibilities for events and users, use the Roles and Permissions Pro add on.
- Multi-Event Registration Addon: 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 shopping cart. With the Multiple 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.
- 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 developers to build their own custom templates using one of the templates provided as a source template.
- JSON API Addon: The new Event Espresso JSON API addon gives permission for other applications, web tools, mobile apps, etc… to access your Event Espresso details through an Application Programming Interface (API).
Note: The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to its plugin, including new addons.
For more details about the newest Event Espreso features and add-ons, check out the plugin here:
User Testimonials
Below are some of the many testimonials that users have posted about Event Espresso:
”Tri-South, Inc is using Event Espresso to manage the course catalog, event ticketing, and class registration. [As their developer] I have customized a few items to make the site and plugin a seamless integration. The client is very pleased!” Jenifer Design
”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
”Event Espresso plugin still rocks. Saw you guys were up for the WP Honors too. Glad I paid for it! If you need event management on your WordPress site I recommend Event Espresso.” Patrick Allmond, Focus Consulting
Useful Tips
Whether you are an education services provider, presenter, workshop planner, or event management consultant, there are simply countless possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso software.
After purchasing your copy of the plugin and becoming a registered user, spend a little time visiting the support forum for new ideas and practical suggestions to streamline your event management and registration workflow or enhance the experience of your attendees.
Support
Event Espresso is fully compatible with all WP plugins and WP themes that follow WordPress coding standards. If you do need help with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides excellent customer support, as so many of its satisfied users 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
Event Espresso provides great support including access to a support forum, comprehensive online documentation with faqs, knowledgebase and how tos, premium 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 web developers with a proven track record of support, so this is definitely a solution you can count on to organize and manage your events.
Software Cost
Event Espresso is available in a range of plugin editions, including a FREE basic edition (called Event Espresso Decaf). For support and advanced plugin functionality, however, you may want to consider using one of the paid plugin versions below:
- Personal Licensing – This lets you run Event Espresso on 1 site only. Cost includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything Licensing – This license option lets you install Event Espresso on 1 site only. Includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add ons and 1 year of upgrades and support. Cost = $279.95.
- Developer License – This enables you to install Event Espresso on five sites. Includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $249.95.
The cost to purchase the Event Espresso plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the plugin sells for the prices shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticketing Management
Please Note: The pricing above was current at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin seller when you visit the website.
Additional Plugin Info
The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to its 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 setting up and using Event Espresso, and the support forums if you have questions related to your particular situation, or to report problems and give feedback.
For all installation and support documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso website.
Our Recommendation
Event Espresso is the preferred WordPress event booking and ticketing management software, used by thousands of companies.
If you own a WordPress-powered web site and you plan to run events that involve scheduling dates, times and venues, booking participants, and/or selling seating, then you will probably not find a better WordPress plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Event Espresso – WordPress Event Registration And Ticket Manager System
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