Do you currently run or plan to run events that require managing bookings or registrations, such as seminars, training courses, non-profit fund-raisers, networking functions, or even a big event like a trade exhibit, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to book to attend?
Co-ordinating event sign-ups is a time-consuming process. You will most likely need to co-ordinate scheduling, available dates and seating allocations, participant numbers, data entry, payment processing and invoicing, confirmations and reservations, reminders, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and issuing tickets to participants.
There are many benefits to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can make your business more efficient, save time and lower expenses, help you easily replicate recurring events, give you more control, create a better client 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 set up an inexpensive and highly professional online event booking system.
Announcing …
Event Espresso – Event Manager And Registration Plugin For WordPress
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin for WordPress allows you to easily create your event and begin processing online registrations in minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and take online event bookings)
Event Espresso is a flexible and feature-rich application that gives you complete control over your event registration management process.
Event Espresso lets you customize registration forms
You can employ a range of event registration strategies, from simple online enrolments and straight up selling tickets, to creating custom registration forms in order to better understand your participants, or integrating your event bookings with an autoresponder system for ongoing follow-ups.
View detailed information about your event attendees
Please Note: At the time of writing this article, Event Espresso provides two different versions of their software: Event Espresso 3 and EE 4. The new Event Espresso 4 is fundamentally different than the older EE 3, as the software is being rebuilt using a different structure to accommodate future growth. The EE 4 plugin platform has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and pricing. The company plans to eventually retire Event Espresso 3, so keep this in mind as you read more about the benefits and advantages of using this plugin.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Plugin Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your web site:
Hands-Free Event Registration Management
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your existing web site into an automated and feature-rich event management site … from custom registration forms and automated response emails, to seating limits, multiple pricing levels and discount codes, to printable tickets and even seating charts.
Better Business Productivity
By using an online event registration system like Event Espresso, you save time and increase your business productivity by literally doing away with the chore of processing registrations manually.
Basically, you are making it easier for participants to perform the registration by themselves.
Letting your attendees to do the data themselves frees up your time and lets you focus more attention 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 process that you want your customers to experience.
Some additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Less Costs: Event Espresso is a very low cost online event registration management solution compared to other options or using a 3rd party service provider. This is made possible through a model where you buy the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and then purchase add ons only when you need added features.
- Higher Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept new event registrations any time of day or night. Not only that, but, Event Espresso social features and add-ons (see below) let people interested in registering for your event invite others who may be interested in attending.
- Green And Paperless Event Booking Process: With Event Espresso, the event signup process remains entirely in digital form, significantly reducing typical paper waste from tasks related to administration.
- All Information Belongs To You. You own all the data you acquire from event participants.
Features
The Event Espresso plugin provides functionality to users through built-in features (these come with the software) and additional features that you can buy for an added cost, called add-ons.
Event Espresso offers many unique built-in to web site owners. Here are just a few of these:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Be up and running in no time.
- Customized Event Registration Forms. With Event Espresso you can gather specific information using custom event registration forms on your site to create a customized experience for your event participants.
- Customizable Event Page Designs. You can customize your events and registrations page using Event Espresso’s limitless template options and parts, plus HTML and CSS.
- Ticket Selector. Present a number of ticket options to prospective attendees and let them purchase the ticket(s) that best suits their needs.
- Google Maps. Google Maps integration allows you to customize the look and control settings of Google Maps on your event listing and event details sections.
- Default Prices. Create events quickly by pre-configuring system-default ticket prices.
- In-App Documentation Systems. Event Espresso 4 comes with 3 useful in-app documentation systems: Help Tours, Help Tabs and Tool Tips.
- Manual Registration Option. you have the option of booking event attendees at the door, or send in paper-based forms for manual registration later.
- Ticketless Events. You can list events without the requirement for attendees to book tickets. Use Event Espresso for any kind of event, not just those that require tickets.
- Public Commenting. Add social a new level of social sharing to your events page by encouraging potential registrants to interact with you online via commenting and previous customers to post reviews that can help others consider whether or not to sign up. Moderation settings for public comments are set up in the WordPress native commenting system.
- Optimized For The Most Up-To-Date WP Version. The Event Espresso 4 user interface follows the WordPress guidelines to help you build beautiful event pages that are easier to use and mobile-friendly.
- Complete Control Of Your Event Management. Event Espresso puts event managers in full control of every aspect of an event’s registration and ticketing, and also allows you to automate this process with event management tools that include staff and venue manager, customizable event designs, payment processing, wait lists, limits on attendees, print-ready tickets and more.
- Exportable Data. You can output all of your information gathered from event customers into Excel or CSV format for creating reports, implementing marketing strategies, reviewing attendee statistics, etc..
- Multiple Attendee Bookings. EE 4 allows an individual or people to register multiple participants at once. Event managers decide how many people are able to register in one booking session by specifying either limits on ticket purchases per order, or per-ticket minimums and maximums.
- Automatic Plugin Installation Upgrades. Event Espresso offers easy one-click software installation updates to ensure that you have the newest features and to keep your software installation compatible with the latest version of WordPress.
- Social Sharing. Event participants and your website visitors can spread the word about your events using social media share buttons.
- Event Posts. Publish your events using pages or posts and take advantage of WordPress custom post type features such as custom fields, post meta data, taxonomies, etc. You can also customize the page templates to display event information in your own custom way.
Extra features include:
- Define Extra Meta Information. This feature allows web developers to have more control and options over the content of your events and how the information displays to prospects.
- Full Logging, Remote Logging. Event Espresso 4 allows you to output a log file with debugging data that can be helpful for web developers who are troubleshooting.
- Autonomy, Flexibility And Value: According to the philosophy stated on their website, 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 software has been built using a modular 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 added features, including:
- Live-filtering when you search for events within the Event Espresso admin.
- Default surcharge (similar to adding a service fee to each ticket).
- Category titles and descriptions on event listing pages.
Event Espresso Add-Ons
As mentioned previously, Event Espresso provides “add ons”, which allow users to significantly expand the functionality of managing an event.
Some of these addons include:
- EE4 Events Grid Template Addon: Displays events in a pure CSS grid-like structure using the featured image. Hovering over the image will display further information. If an event does not have a featured image available, it will use a default image.
- Recurring Events Management Addon: The Recurring Events management add on lets you put events on autopilot by scheduling recurring events weeks or months in advance. You can schedule as many classes, meetings, courses and conferences in advance as you like. Event Espresso will then automatically open and close bookings for all of these recurring events.
- Events Date Range Template Add-on: The Date Range custom event list template enables your users to browse for events that occur in a certain date range.
- Social Coupons Integration Add-on: If your web site 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 lets you bypass certain aspects of the plugin.
- Seating Chart Addon: The seating chart addon is for venues and events that sell and reserve seats for attendees in advance. This is perfect for venues and events such as theaters, concert halls, play houses, sports arenas and stadiums. The Seating Chart addon allows you to promote reserved or assigned seating to your events and venues from your WordPress site. The Seating Chart addon lets you control the experience for your customers and design assigned seating charts and attach single prices to each seat.
- EE4 Event Ticketing Add on: 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 addon includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple barcode types are included for handling check-in scans at venues. Registrants 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 attendees and to validate tickets.
- EE4 Events Table Template Add-on: The Events Table Template add on provides you with a simple and easy-to-use system that allows you to edit the look and feel of your event lists. It comes with a simple table template with category filters, table search, table paging and more. It also lets developers build custom templates using one of the templates provided as a source template.
- Infusionsoft Integration Add-on: With the Event Espresso 4 Infusionsoft integration all-in-one sales and marketing plugin add-on, you can easily automate your customer relations and email marketing campaigns to seamlessly capture event attendee data, track bookings, and accept payments from your website.
Note: The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to the plugin, including new add-ons.
For full details about the latest Event Espreso features and add ons, visit the plugin website:
User Testimonials
Here are some of the many great testimonials that satisfied users have posted about Event Espresso:
”EventEspresso saves us money, saves our secretary 16-24 hours and looks so professionally done that people ask us how we do it; which we happily tell them, “Event Espresso, and be sure to get the ticketing add-on.”” David, House of Prayer
”Customizing an Event Registration plugin for WordPress by @EventEspresso. Love the pro version. Highly Recommended!” Joshua Garity
”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
Event Espresso Tips
Whether you are a motivational speaker, presenter, conference planner, or event management consultant, there are simply endless possibilities of what you can do with the Event Espresso software.
After purchasing the plugin and becoming a licensed owner, visit the user forum for useful ideas and practical suggestions to streamline your event management process and improve the experience of your customers.
Support
Event Espresso works with with other WP plugins and themes that follow WordPress coding standards. If you have problems with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides highly responsive technical support, as so many of its plugin end-users confirm:
”Thank you Seth for being so responsive and going above and beyond the call of duty with your app! I highly recommend Event Espresso for its functionality and for the stellar support. Seth has a deep knowledge and understanding of WordPress and has built a tool that is seamless to use for both organizer and attendee alike! After looking at a bunch of alternatives, Event Espresso far surpasses the other apps that are available.” Wendy Troupe, ICS North Pole Express
The software provides amazing support with access to support forums, in-depth 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.
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 rely on to run your events.
Event Espresso Cost
Event Espresso is available in a range of editions, including a FREE basic edition (named Event Espresso Decaf). For personal support and advanced software features, however, you should consider using one of the premium plugin editions below:
- Personal License Edition – This enables you to set up Event Espresso on one domain only. Cost includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything Edition – This enables you to set up Event Espresso on one site only. Includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add-ons and 1 year of upgrades and support. Cost = $279.95.
- Developer Licensing – This license allows you to run Event Espresso on 5 domains. Includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $249.95.
Current pricing for the Event Espresso plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the software retails for the amounts shown above. Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing: Event Espresso – Event Registration & Ticket Manager
Please 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 website.
Additional Info
Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to the software. Make sure to register for their newsletter when you visit their site to receive the latest information and updates.
Search the software’s online documentation tools to find answers to common questions about setting up and how to use Event Espresso, and the support forums if you have questions related to your particular situation, or to notify developers about errors and give feedback.
For detailed installation and support documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso website.
We Recommend
Event Espresso is the leading WP event booking and ticketing management plugin, used and trusted by thousands of users.
If you own a WordPress website and you intend to run events that require scheduling dates and venues (offline and online), booking participants, or reserving seating, then you will probably not find a more suitable WP plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For more details, check out the plugin here: Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticket Management
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