Do you currently run or plan to run events that need handling registrations, such as seminars, training courses, not-for-profit fund-raisers, marketing functions, or even a big event such as a music festival, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to register to attend?
Managing event bookings is a complex process. You will probably have to manage scheduling, date availability, attendee numbers, data processing and storage, collecting payments and sending invoices, confirmations, reminders and alerts, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and delivering tickets to event registrants.
There are lots of advantages to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can make your business more efficient, save time and lower costs, help you easily replicate previously-run events, give event managers more control, improve client experience and grow your sales.
The problem is that setting this up can be quite costly.
Fortunately, if you own a WordPress-based website, you can download and install an inexpensive and highly professional online event registration solution.
Announcing …
Event Espresso
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration software enables you to easily schedule an event and begin receiving online registrations literally in a few minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and accept online event registrations)
Event Espresso is a feature-rich application that gives you full control of your event registration management process.
Customize event registration forms
You can use various event registration strategies, from simple online enrolments and straight up ticket sales, to creating custom registration forms in order to better understand your participants, or integrating your event registration forms with social media sites like Facebook.
View detailed information about event attendees
Important: Currently, Event Espresso supports two different versions of their software: Event Espresso 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new EE 4 is completely different than the older Event Espresso 3, as the platform has been redeveloped using a different structure to enable future growth and expansion. The Event Espresso 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 read more about this plugin.
Go here to learn more:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your web site:
Hands-Free Event Registration Management And Ticketing System
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your current online presence into a fully-featured and automated event management site … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to seating capacity limits, multiple pricing levels and discount codes, to printable tickets and seating charts.
Increased Business Productivity
By using a web-based event registration solution like Event Espresso, you save time and improve your business productivity by virtually eliminating the need to process registrations and sign-ups manually.
Essentially, you are making it easier for participants to enrol themselves.
Allowing your attendees to do all of the data entry frees up your time and lets you concentrate more resources on organizing a more unique event.
More Control Over The User Experience
As you will discover in a moment, Event Espresso gives you full control over the event management and booking process that you want your users to experience.
Some additional plugin benefits include:
- Less Costs: Event Espresso is a very inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to developing your own software or using a third-party provider. The cost is kept to a minimum by using a model where Event Espresso users buy the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and then buy add-ons when you need new features.
- Higher Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept new sign-ups any time of day or night. In addition, Event Espresso social add-ons (see below) let people interested in registering for your event invite friends who may also be interested in attending.
- Green Event Sign Up Process: With Event Espresso, your event registration process can remain wholly online, significantly reducing typical paper waste from tasks associated with enrollment.
- Own Your Information. You control all the data obtained from your event participants.
Features
Event Espresso provides functionality to its customers via standard features (these come with the software) and optional features that users can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides many features to WP users. Here are just some:
- Quick and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in no time.
- Multiple Times and Dates Per Event. In Event Espresso 4, events can have multiple dates and times (called datetimes), that these can be managed from one single event.
- Event Calendar. Attendees can easily see your events and add these to their schedule using the WordPress calendar.
- Ticket Selector. Present multiple ticket options to prospects so they can choose the ticket(s) that will best fit their needs.
- Custom Post Types. You can Event Espresso into your WP theme and reuse venue details throughout other areas of your site.
- Default Prices. Create events quickly and easily with pre-configured default ticket prices.
- Discount Codes. You can leverage promotion and multiple discount codes to incentivize people to take action without hesitation, or simply make your offerings more appealing for others. Also useful for helping to sell out events close to deadlines.
- Event Check-In List. Generate a list of event registrants and confirm everyone who attends.
- Administrative Pre-approval. Be selective about who can and can’t attend your events.
- XML RSS Event Feeds. Automatically update your blog readers, bring in more visitors and reach a wider audience with the built-in XML RSS events feed.
- Works With The Most Recent WP Version. The Event Espresso 4 user interface follows the WordPress guidelines to help you create beautifully-designed event pages that are easier to use and mobile-friendly.
- Country-specific Settings. You can configure the country and currency settings that will be used throughout Event Espresso, such as currency, currency symbols, decimal characters and places, country codes, regions, etc.
- Default Tickets. If you create similar tickets for your events, you can set up as your default ticket for the next event simply by checking a box.
- WP Visual Editor. Event Espresso uses the native WP Visual editor, so you can quickly and easily add graphic images and write your content without having to learn HTML or CSS, just like any WP post or page.
- Registrant Records. You can manage each customer’s profile information and payment history and keep all of their information organized and easily within reach.
- Social Sharing. Event participants and website visitors can tell others about your events using social sharing buttons.
- Accurate Attendee Management. You have control of your attendees’ details; who has enrolled, for what event and how much they paid. With the attendee manager, you can get a quick overview of registered attendees and their payment status, easily add/edit attendee records and payments, export a list of attendees to Excel for additional uses, send custom payment reminders and receipts and send messages to your participants on a person-by-person basis or collectively.
Additional features include:
- Hooks, Actions & Filters. These allow web-based software developers to implement safer and more reliable customizations and extensions to the Event Espresso application that are compatible with WordPress.
- Metabox Management & Reorganization. Event Espresso leverages the WP user interface, which gives you the ability to reorder the user interface to match your workflow process. Each control box can be collapsed, re-arranged or entirely removed from your workflow configuration.
- Autonomy, Flexibility And Value For Money: According to the mission statement on their web site, Event Espresso’s goal 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 modular and highly effective model that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money in the process.
The premium edition of Event Espresso also includes over 40 added features, including:
- Live-filtering when you search for events in the Event Espresso admin.
- Default surcharge (similar to adding a service fee to all tickets).
- Category titles and descriptions on event listings.
Add-Ons
As well as an incredible array of features, Event Espresso provides “add ons”, which allow customers to further enhance 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 available, a default image will be used.
- Recurring Events Management Addon: The Recurring Events manager add on enables you to put events on autopilot by scheduling repeated events weeks or months … even years in advance. You can schedule as many future events as you need. Event Espresso will then automatically open and close registrations for all recurring events.
- Events Category Accordion Template Addon: The Category Accordion template displays event categories as a simple list. Clicking the category name displays the events related to that category and closes previously open categories.
- Social Coupons Integration Add-on: If your website is featured on Groupon.com you can easily accept Groupon codes to your events. You can even specify whether events accept the social coupons or not.
- Custom Files Addon: The Custom Files add-on provides PHP files that allow you to bypass certain aspects of the Event Espresso plugin.
- Seating Chart Add on: The seating chart add-on is suitable for venues and events that sell and reserve seats for attendees in advance. This is ideal for venues and events such as theaters, concert halls, play houses, sports arenas and stadiums. The Seating Chart add on allows you to promote reserved or assigned seating to your events and venues from your WordPress site. The Seating Chart add on lets you control the experience for your customers and design assigned seating charts and attach single pricing to every seat.
- Event Ticketing Add on: The Ticketing add-on gives you the ability to create tickets with bar codes. The Bar Scanning add on gives you the capacity to scan ticket bar codes. The ticketing add-on includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple barcode 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.
- EE4 Events Calendar Addon: This add-on uses the WordPress calendar to display events and categories of events using an attractive graphical calendar.
- JSON API Addon: The Event Espresso JSON API addon lets other software applications, websites, mobile apps, etc… to access your Event Espresso content through an Application Programming Interface (API).
Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to the plugin, including new add ons.
To learn more about the newest Event Espreso features and add-ons, visit the plugin website here:
User Feedback
Below are just some of the testimonials that satisfied users have written about Event Espresso:
”It’s been very comprehensive and covers exactly the aspects of event registration that we needed for our site plus some features that we didn’t even need but could still use in the future. Very Excellent Plugin!” Tristan Hall, Area 12:2 Youth Group
”You can tell that the Event Espresso team is really passionate about their work, and that they care and spend a lot of time helping people work with their plugin and use it with their events – it’s something every WordPress service should aim for.” Ryan Imel, WPCandy
”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
Useful Tips
Whether you are an education services provider, trainer, festival promoter, or event professional, there are just unlimited possibilities of what you can do with the Event Espresso plugin.
After purchasing your copy of the plugin and becoming a registered user, spend a little time visiting the user forum for inspiration and practical ways to improve your event management and registration workflow or enhance the experience of your attendees.
Plugin Support
Event Espresso works with with most WordPress plugins and WP themes that follow WordPress coding standards. If you have problems with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides highly responsive support, as so many of its plugin users attest:
”It’s magical. Support is amazing, plugin is simple to use, a 3 year old could use the iPhone app…it all is very impressive and professional.” David, House of Prayer
The software provides robust support including access to a support forum, in-depth online documentation with faqs, knowledgebase and how tos, email 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.
In addition, Event Espresso boasts a well-staffed team of experienced WordPress developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely a plugin you can rely on to run and manage your events.
Plugin Cost
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 may want to consider downloading one of the paid plugin versions below:
- Personal Licensing – This enables you to configure Event Espresso on 1 domain only. Price includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything License Edition – This allows you to set up Event Espresso on one domain only. Price includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium addons and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $279.95.
- Developer License – This enables you to install Event Espresso on 5 domains. Price includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $249.95.
Pricing details of the Event Espresso plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the plugin is selling for the amounts shown above. Check the plugin’s website for the latest price: Event Espresso – Event Manager & Ticket Registration Software For WordPress
Note: The pricing above was current when this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin seller when you visit the site.
Additional Information
Event Espresso regularly adds 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.
Look up the software’s online documentation pages for answers to common questions about setup and using Event Espresso, and visit the support forums if you have questions related to your specific use-case, or to report issues and share feedback.
For all documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso web site.
We Recommend
Event Espresso is the preferred WP event booking and ticketing management software, used by thousands of event promoters.
If you are a WordPress user and you intend to run any event that requires scheduling dates and venues, enrolling participants, and/or selling seating, then you will probably not find a better solution for your needs than Event Espresso.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Event Espresso – WordPress Event Management And Ticketing Registration System
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