Does your company currently run or plan to run events that need managing bookings, such as seminars, training courses, charity fundraisers, networking conferences, or even a big event such as a trade exhibit, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to book to attend or participate?
Co-ordinating event sign-ups can be a time-consuming process. You may be required to manage event schedules, availability, registration numbers, data collection and storage, collecting payments and sending invoices, confirmations and reservations, reminders, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and delivering tickets to event participants.
There are a number of benefits to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can make your business more efficient, save time and lower costs, help you easily duplicate similar events, give event managers more control, improve user experience and grow your sales.
The problem is that this can be very costly.
Fortunately, if you own a WordPress-based digital presence, you can set up a very inexpensive and highly professional online event registration solution.
Introducing …
Event Espresso – Event Registration & Ticket Manager
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin lets you easily create your event and begin receiving registrations in just a few minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and accept online bookings)
Event Espresso is a feature-packed software that gives you complete control of your event registration management process.
Create custom registration forms
You can employ multiple event registration strategies, from simple online enrollments and straight up selling tickets, to setting up custom registration forms in order to better understand your attendees, or integrating your event bookings with social media sites like Facebook.
View detailed information about your event attendees
Important: At the time of writing this article, Event Espresso supports two different versions of their software: EE 3 and EE 4. The new Event Espresso 4 is fundamentally different than the older EE 3, as the platform is being rebuilt using a different structure to allow for future growth and expansion. The EE 4 plugin platform has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and pricing. The developers aim to eventually retire EE 3, so keep this in mind as you read more about the benefits and advantages of using this plugin.
For more details go here:
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
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your existing website or blog into a fully-featured event management website … from custom registration forms and automated response emails, to seating limits, multiple pricing levels and discount codes, to printable tickets and seating charts.
Better Business Productivity
By using an online event registration solution like Event Espresso, you save time and improve your business productivity by practically doing away with the need to process registrations manually.
Essentially, you are enabling participants to enroll on their own.
Letting your clients to do all of the data themselves frees up your time and lets you invest more time on organizing a more unique event.
More Control Over The User Experience
As you will soon see, Event Espresso gives you more control over the event management and registration process that you want your attendees to experience.
Additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Reduced Costs: The Event Espresso plugin is a very inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to developing your own software or using a 3rd party provider. The cost is kept to a minimum by using a model where Event Espresso users start with the core plugin (which suits the needs of most users) and buy optional addons only if you need added functionality.
- Increased Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept new bookings any time of day or night. Not only that, but, Event Espresso social and marketing features and add-ons (see below) let people interested in registering for your event share your information with others who may also be interested.
- Green Event Sign Up Process: With Event Espresso, the event signup process remains entirely online, eliminating typical paper consumption from tasks related to enrollment.
- Own Your Data. You control all the information obtained from event attendees.
Features
Event Espresso provides functionality to its customers through standard features (these come with the software) and optional features that you can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides many built-in to site owners. Here are just some:
- Quick and simple to install and set up. Ready to start using in very little time.
- 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.
- Customized Confirmation Email Message. Set up automated registration and payment notification emails to communicate with your customers.
- Tax Admin And Reporting. Event Espresso 4 provides a number of options to handle taxes for your event and report tax fees to customers when purchasing tickets. You can configure taxes globally or on a per-ticket basis.
- Custom Post Types. You can Event Espresso into your WP theme and display registrant information throughout other areas of your site.
- Default Prices. Set up events quickly by pre-configuring default pricing.
- In-App Documentation Systems. Event Espresso 4 comes with three comprehensive in-app documentation systems: Help Tours, Help Tabs and Tool Tips.
- Event Check-In List. Generate an exportable list of participants and confirm everyone who attends.
- Waiting Lists. Prospective participants can join a waiting list if your event has reached maximum attendance. Additionally, you can specify that waiting list attendees pre-pay if you plan to expand numbers for your event.
- Private Contact Commenting. Record comments about contacts on their profile. Private notes enables you to keep a record of when users contacted you, your internal comments, and how you’ve helped them.
- Optimized For The Most Recent Version Of WordPress. The Event Espresso 4 user interface follows the WordPress guidelines to help you build aesthetically beautiful event pages that are easier to use and mobile-friendly.
- Country Settings. You can configure the country and currency settings to be used in events, including currency name, currency symbols, decimal characters and places, country codes, states or provinces, and so on.
- Upload Event Information. Event Espresso 4 provides an advanced importing feature that allows you to quickly upload bulk event data at once. You can export, edit and import data for events, datetimes, ticketing information, pricing, registration questions, venue info, terminology, taxonomies, term relationships and more.
- Venue Profiles. The venue manager in EE 4 lets information about venues to be published throughout the Event Espresso admin and the public areas of your website to inform visitors of your event’s location. The venue profile displays many standard WP settings such as tags, categories, discussion settings, comments, etc., but also lets you reuse information like venue capacity, venue site URL, venue phone number, physical and virtual location, maps, etc. You can also list all of your venues on specific sections on your WP theme and on a venue archive page on your site where you can set up and reuse venue profiles for multiple events or display all the events for a specific venue.
- Registrant Records. You can manage each registrant’s profile information and payment history and keep all of their information organized.
- Invoice Payment Reminders. Follow-up potential clients who have not fully paid for their booking with a standard but personalized PDF invoice with one click. Your invoices will reference pre-registered participants who have not paid their registration yet by name, give them the balance owing, and include a link to the event, a payment url and a link where they can download the invoice.
- Categorize Events. If you have multiple event types such as free and paid, conference speakers and breakout sessions, different types of exercise classes, etc. you can categorize them to make it easier for event participants to locate what they’re searching for. You can list all the events in a category on a custom event category page, make all events searchable by category, and color-code your events on the Event Espresso events calendar to make them easier to find, as well as suggesting new events in the categories that interest your existing customers.
Extra features include:
- Define Extra Meta Information. This feature allows you 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 lets you output a log file with debugging data that can be helpful for web developers who are potential errors.
- Autonomy, Flexibility And 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 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+ added features, including:
- Live-filtering when searching 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
In addition to an amazing array of features, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow end-users to significantly expand the functionality of events.
Some of these add ons include:
- Events Vector Maps Template Addon: The Vector Maps custom events list template lets you display scheduled events by location. 4 maps are currently available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Recurring Events Management Addon: The Recurring Events management add on lets you put your events on autopilot by scheduling repeated events weeks or months … even years ahead. You can add as many classes, meetings, courses and conferences in advance as you need. Event Espresso will automatically open and close bookings for all recurring events.
- Events Date Range Template Addon: The Date Range custom event list template lets your users to search for events that occur in a certain date range.
- 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 Template Addon: The Custom Template add-on can display your event lists in a number of exciting and interesting ways.
- Roles And Permissions Basic & Pro Add on Versions: This add on lets you include other users in the event management process and give new users the ability to create events or regional managers permission to manage events. The Roles and Permissions Basic add-on allows you to manage & customize the WordPress users roles and assign them different permissions with different capabilities, allowing others to help you manage your events or events that others create. You can customize roles so that users do not have access to certain sections 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 addon.
- Multi-Event Registration Add on: The Multi-Event registration addon gives your potential customers the ability to register for multiple events at once. In each event listing registrants will be given the option to either register for a single event or add multiple events to their shopping 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.
- Events Table View Template Add-on: The Events Table Template addon gives event managers an easy-to-use system that lets you 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 design their own custom templates using one of the included templates as a base template.
- JSON API Addon: The new Event Espresso JSON API add-on allows other applications, websites, mobile apps, etc… to access your Event Espresso information through an API (Application Programming Interface).
Note: The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to the software, including new addons.
To learn more about the latest Event Espreso features and add ons, visit the plugin website here:
Users – Testimonials
Here are some of the testimonials that users have written about Event Espresso:
”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
”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 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
Plugin Tips
Whether you are a motivational speaker, trainer, seminar planner, or event management consultant, 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, go through the user forum for tips and practical ways to improve your event management process and improve the experience of your event participants.
Plugin Support
Event Espresso is fully compatible with other WP plugins and themes that follow standard WordPress development guidelines. If you experience issues with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides great customer support, as many of its clients attest:
”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
The software provides amazing support that includes access to a support forum, in-depth online documentation with faqs, knowledge base and how tos, custom development 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 proven track record of support, so this is definitely a solution you can rely on to run your events.
Software Pricing
Event Espresso is available in various editions, including a FREE basic edition (referred to as Event Espresso Decaf). For personal support and advanced software functionality, however, you need to consider purchasing one of the premium plugin versions below:
- Personal License Edition – This edition lets you install Event Espresso on one site only. Pricing includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything License – This option enables you to configure Event Espresso on one domain only. Includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add ons and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $279.95.
- Developer License Edition – This option enables you to set up Event Espresso on five sites. Pricing 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 can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the software is selling for the prices shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Espresso
Please Note: The pricing above was current when this article was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller when you visit the site.
Additional Info
Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to the plugin. Make sure to stay subscribed to their customer update list to receive the latest information and updates.
Look up the plugin’s online documentation tools to find answers to common questions about setting up and using Event Espresso, and visit the support forums if you have questions related to a particular situation, or to notify developers about bugs and leave feedback.
For detailed installation and support documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso web site.
The Bottom Line
Event Espresso is the leading WP event booking and ticketing manager software, used by thousands.
If you own a WordPress-powered site and you currently run any event that involves scheduling dates and venues (offline and online), registering participants, or reserving seating, then you will probably not find a better WP plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For more information, check out the plugin here: Event Espresso – Event Manager & Ticket Registration Plugin For WordPress
***