Does your company currently run or plan to run events that need managing bookings or registrations, such as workshops, community courses, non-profit fund-raisers, corporate functions, or even a big event like a music concert, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to book to attend?
Managing event registrations is a time-consuming process. You may need to co-ordinate calendar schedules, available dates and seating, participant numbers, data collection and storage, payments and sending invoices, confirmations and reservations, reminders and alerts, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and providing tickets to participants.
There are lots of benefits to setting up an online event registration system. It can make your business more efficient, save time and lower costs, help you easily duplicate recurring events, give you more control, improve customer experience and increase your sales.
The problem is that this can be quite costly.
Fortunately, if you run a WordPress-based web site, you can install a very inexpensive and professional online event booking system.
Announcing …
Event Espresso
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin for WP enables you to easily create multiple events and begin processing registrations literally in a few minutes.
(Set up multiple events and take online registrations with Event Espresso)
Event Espresso is a feature-packed plugin that gives you complete control of your event registration management process.
Customize your event registration forms
You can employ several event registration strategies, from simple online registration and straight up selling tickets, to creating custom registration forms for collecting detailed information about your participants, or integrating your event registration forms with social media and email marketing software.
View detailed information about event attendees
Please Note: At the time of writing this review, Event Espresso is transitioning between two different versions of their plugin: Event Espresso 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new EE 4 is impressively different than the older EE 3, as it has been rebuilt using a different structure to accommodate future growth. The Event Espresso 4 plugin software 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 the benefits and advantages of using the plugin.
More info:
Benefits Of Using Event Espresso
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your site:
Hands-Free Event Registration Management And Ticketing System
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your existing website into a feature-rich and professional event management website … 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 an online event registration system like Event Espresso, you save time and increase your business productivity by virtually doing away with the need to process registrations manually.
Essentially, you are enabling participants to enroll themselves.
Allowing your attendees to do all of the data themselves frees you up from doing admin work and lets you direct more resources on delivering a more enjoyable event.
Full Control Over The User Experience
As you will learn shortly, Event Espresso gives you complete control over the event management and registration process that you want your customers to experience.
Additional benefits of the plugin include the following:
- Lower Costs: The Event Espresso plugin provides you with a very low cost online event registration management solution compared to developing your own solution or using a 3rd-party service. This is made possible by using a model where you buy the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and then purchase addons when you need extra features.
- Higher Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept new registrations any time of day or night. In addition, Event Espresso social sharing and marketing features and add ons (see below) let people interested in attending your event share your information with friends who may also be interested in attending.
- Green Event Sign Up Process: With Event Espresso, the event sign up process remains entirely online, reducing typical paper consumption from tasks related to enrollment.
- All Information Belongs To You. You control all the data you obtain from event participants.
Plugin Features
Event Espresso provides functionality to end-users through built-in features (these come with the plugin) and additional features that customers can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso offers many great features to web site owners. Here are just some:
- Quick and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in minutes.
- Multiple Dates and Times Per Event. In Event Espresso 4, events can have many dates and times (called datetimes), and these can be managed from one single event.
- Event Calendar. Participants can easily find your events and add these to their schedule using the WordPress calendar.
- Ticket Selector. Present several ticket options to prospective registrants and let them purchase the ticket(s) that best fits their needs.
- Intelligent Single Page Checkout Process. The Event Espresso 4 checkout process is fast and intuitive. Registrants are given the option to automatically copy the primary registrant’s information for any additional participants.
- Default Price Types. Price types let you create new prices that adjust the base ticket price of your default ticket.
- In-App Documentation Systems. Event Espresso 4 includes three useful in-app documentation systems: Help Tours, Help Tabs and Tool Tips.
- Contact Profiles & Contact List. EE 4 lets you know who your customers are and how you’ve previously done business with your customers. Your Contact Profile page stores the name, biography, contact information, event registration details, comments, etc. about each client.
- Administrative Pre-approval. Be selective about who can attend your events.
- Public Commenting. Add social a new level of social sharing to your event page by encouraging potential registrants to interact with you online via commenting and past participants to post feedback that can help others consider whether or not to sign up. Moderation settings for public comments are set using the WP native commenting system.
- Works With The Most Up-To-Date Version Of WordPress. The EE 4 user interface follows the WordPress guidelines to help you create highly aesthetic event pages that are responsive and mobile-friendly.
- Your Organization Settings. Configure your profile to be deployed throughout the plugin and your WP themes. Your organization information include: company name, address, city, state, country, zip code, primary contact email address, phone, tax number, business logo, Facebook URL, Twitter URL, LinkedIn profile URL, Pinterest URL, Google+ profile URL, Instagram URL.
- Upload Events. EE 4 provides a CSV-based importing capability that lets you upload bulk event data all at one time. You can export, edit and upload details about events, datetimes, ticketing details, pricing, custom registration questions, venues, terms, taxonomies, term relationships and more.
- WP WYSIWYG Editor. Event Espresso uses the standard WordPress WYSIWYG editor, allowing you to quickly and easily insert photos and stylize your content without having to learn HTML or CSS, just like any typical WP post.
- Event Espresso Community. Event Espresso lets you network with a community of experienced event managers, software programmers, designers, web marketers and business owners who also use the software. You can network with other members of the Event Espresso community through their community chat room, support forums, job board, and social media discussions on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Google+.
- Staff Management. Save time and keep your business organized by reusing staff profiles for multiple events or displaying profile information such as staff member’s contact information, resume and photo using a shortcode in any event description.
- Categorize Events. If you have multiple types of events such as free and paid, workshops and breakout sessions, different types of exercise classes, etc. you can categorize these to make it easier for event registrants to find what they’re searching for. You can display all the events in a category on an event category page, make events searchable by category, and color-code 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 visitors.
Additional features include:
- Define Extra Meta Information. This allows web developers to have more control and options over the content of your event pages and how your information displays to visitors.
- Full Logging, Remote Logging. Event Espresso 4 allows you to generate a log file with debugging data that can be helpful for developers when diagnosing errors.
- Flexibility, Autonomy And Value For Money: 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 edition of Event Espresso also provides you with over 40 additional features, including:
- Duplicating events – streamlines the work of re-entering event data when creating new events.
- Question groups that simplify the process of reusing a group of questions for similar events.
- Option to skip the confirmation page in registration.
Add ons
As well as an incredible number of features, Event Espresso provides “addons”, which allow end-users to further expand the functionality of events.
Some of these add-ons include:
- Events Vector Maps Template Add on: The Vector Maps custom events list template lets you display upcoming events by location. 4 maps are currently available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Recurring Events Dropdown Custom Template Add on: The Recurring Events Drop-down custom template organizes many datetime events into a drop-down list.
- Events Calendar Table Template Add-on: The Calendar Table template is a list template with a bold date and customizable “register now” button. The template can also be customized to display the event thumbnail image instead of a date.
- Social Coupons Integration Add-on: If your website is featured on Groupon.com you can easily accept Groupon codes to your events. You can also specify whether events accept the social coupons or not.
- Custom Files Add on: The Custom Files add-on provides PHP files that let you override certain aspects of the plugin.
- Seating Chart Add-on: The seating chart add-on is 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 lets you promote reserved or assigned seating to your events and venues right from your WordPress site. The Seating Chart add on lets you control the environment for your attendees and design assigned seating charts and attach a single price to every seat.
- Event Ticketing Addon: The Ticketing add on gives you the capacity to create tickets with bar codes. The Bar Scanning add-on gives you the ability to scan ticket barcodes. The ticketing add-on includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple bar code types are included for handling check-in scans at the venue door. People can either print out their tickets or display them on their mobile devices. The barcode scanner can be used for checking in or checking out attendees and to validate tickets.
- EE4 Events Calendar Addon: This WordPress events calendar displays events and categories of events using a nice graphical calendar.
- EE4 Infusionsoft Integration Addon: With the Event Espresso 4 Infusionsoft App and Merchant Account integration all-in-one sales and business marketing software add on, you can easily automate your customer relations and email marketing campaigns to seamlessly capture event attendee data, track registrations, and accept payments from your Event Espresso powered website.
Note: The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to the software, including new add-ons.
To learn more about the latest Event Espreso features and addons, visit the plugin website here:
Testimonials
Here are a few of the many testimonials that satisfied plugin users have posted about Event Espresso:
”Broadcasting my support for Event Espresso will be a pleasure. I recently helped the Webmaster at a sister church configure your event manager for their site, so I can say with confidence and from experience, that Event Espresso is the best Event Manager plugin ever!” Philip Simpson, The Charlotte Church
”I searched long and hard to find something that would serve my needs. This is, by far, the most complete and comprehensive solution I have found.” Bill Hepper, We Teach Live
”Just bought an Event Espresso license for an upcoming conference website we are working on. The custom registration forms functionality rocks!” Eric Sopp, Inside Design
Plugin Tips
Whether you are a gym owner, presenter, concert promoter, or event management professional, there are just endless possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso software.
After purchasing your copy of the plugin and becoming a licensed user, visit the support forum for new ideas and practical ways to streamline your event management workflow or enhance the experience of your event registrants.
Product Support
Event Espresso is compatible with most WordPress plugins and WordPress themes that follow standard WordPress coding guidelines. If you find that you need help with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides excellent technical 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 Event Espresso plugin provides great support including access to support forums, comprehensive online documentation with faqs, knowledgebase and how tos, one-on-one 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 an established team of experienced web developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely software you can count on to run and manage your events.
Plugin Pricing
Event Espresso is available in a range of editions, including a FREE basic edition (referred to as Event Espresso Decaf). For support and advanced plugin options, however, you should consider downloading one of the ”Pro” plugin editions below:
- Personal Licensing – This option lets you configure Event Espresso on 1 site only. It includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything License – This license allows you to run Event Espresso on 1 site only. Includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add-ons and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $279.95.
- Developer Licensing – This allows you to configure Event Espresso on 5 domains. It includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $249.95.
Price details for the Event Espresso plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the software is selling for the amounts shown above. Check the plugin’s website for the current price: Event Espresso – Event Registration & Ticket Management
Note: The above reflects the pricing when this review was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin developer when you visit the site.
Event Espresso – Additional Info
The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to the plugin. Make sure to remain subscribed to their customer update list to receive the latest information and updates.
Search the plugin’s online documentation pages for answers to common questions about setup and using Event Espresso, and the support forums if you have questions related to a particular situation, 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 web site.
Our Recommendation
Event Espresso is the preferred WP event registration and ticketing manager software, used and trusted by thousands of people.
If you are a WordPress user and you plan to run an event that requires managing dates, times and venues (offline and online), registering attendees, and/or selling tickets, then you will probably not find a better plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: Event Espresso
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