Does your organization currently run or plan to run events that require managing bookings or registrations, such as seminars, community courses, charity fundraisers, marketing conferences, or even a large-scale event like an art exhibition, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to book to attend?
Managing event sign-ups is a time-consuming process. You will most likely be required to manage calendar schedules, dates, participant numbers, data collection and admin, payment processing and invoicing, confirmations, reminders, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and delivering tickets to attendees.
There are many advantages to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can make your business more efficient, save time and reduce costs, help you easily duplicate previous events, give event managers more control, create a more enjoyable customer experience and increase your sales.
The problem is that setting this up can be very costly.
The good news is that if you run a WordPress-based digital presence, you can easily set up an inexpensive and highly professional web-based event registration solution.
Announcing …
Event Espresso – Event Registration & Ticket Manager
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration WP plugin allows you to easily set up multiple events and begin receiving registrations literally in minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and accept online event registrations)
Event Espresso is a versatile and feature-packed application that gives you complete control over the event registration management process.
Create custom event registration forms
You can use several event registration strategies, from simple online enrolments and straight up ticket sales, to setting up custom registration forms for collecting detailed information about your event attendees, or integrating your event registration forms with social media sites like Facebook.
Access detailed information about your event attendees
Note: Currently, Event Espresso offers two different versions of their plugin: EE 3 and EE 4. The new Event Espresso 4 is completely different than the older EE 3, as the software is being revamped using a different structure to allow for future growth and expansion. The Event Espresso 4 plugin platform has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and price. The developers aim to eventually retire Event Espresso 3, so keep this in mind as you read more about this plugin.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your web site:
Automated Event Registration Management And Ticketing System
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your existing website into an automated and feature-rich event management website … from custom registration forms and automated response emails, to seating limits, multiple pricing options and discount codes, to printable tickets and seating charts.
Increased Business Productivity
By using a web-based event registration system like Event Espresso, you save time and increase your business productivity by literally eliminating the chore of processing registrations and bookings manually.
Basically, you are enabling event participants to perform the registration themselves.
Letting your attendees to do the data entry frees up your time and lets you concentrate more of your time on creating a more unique event.
Full Control Over The User Experience
As you will soon discover, Event Espresso gives you complete control over the event management process that you want your clients to experience.
Additional benefits of the plugin include:
- Significantly Lower Costs: The Event Espresso plugin provides you with a very inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to developing your own system or using a 3rd-party service. This is made possible by using a model where Event Espresso users start with the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and then purchase add-ons when you need additional functionality.
- More Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept new event sign-ups 24/7. In addition, Event Espresso social sharing and marketing features and addons (see below) let people who are interested in attending your event invite others who may also be interested.
- Green & Paperless Event Booking Process: With Event Espresso, your event registration process can remain entirely online, reducing traditional paper consumption from tasks related to enrollment.
- Own Your Information. You control all the information you acquire from event attendees.
Event Espresso Features
Event Espresso delivers functionality to users through built-in features (these come with the plugin) and additional features that customers can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides many built-in to WP users. Here are just a few:
- Quick and easy to install and implement. Be up and running in minutes.
- Multiple Ticket And Pricing Options. Event Espresso allows you to create as many types of tickets as you want and set prices, ticket quantity limits, etc.
- Customized Notification Email Message. Easily set up customized automated registration and payment confirmation emails to communicate with event participants.
- Ticket Selector. Present several ticket options to prospective registrants so they can purchase the ticket(s) that will best fit their needs.
- Custom Post Types. Integrate Event Espresso into your WordPress theme and reuse contact information throughout other areas of your site.
- Spam Protection. Reduce the chance of spammers and bots creating false registrations on your site with reCAPTCHA settings that authenticate human activity.
- In-App Documentation. Event Espresso 4 includes three comprehensive in-app documentation systems: Help Tours, Help Tabs and Tool Tips.
- Event Check-In List. Generate a list of event attendees and check in everyone who has attended.
- Waiting Lists. Prospective attendees can subscribe to a waiting list if your event is full. You can also make it a requirement wait-listed registrants pay for their spots if you plan to add more capacity for the event.
- Private Comments On Contacts. Record observations about event registrants on their profile and how you have helped your customers. Private notes allows you to keep a record of when event attendees contacted you, your internal observations, and how you’ve interacted with your contacts.
- Works With The Most Recent WP Version. The EE 4 user interface follows all WordPress guidelines to help you build beautifully-designed event pages that are easier to use and mobile-friendly.
- Country Settings. Event managers can configure the country and currency settings that will be used throughout Event Espresso, including currency name, currency signs, decimal signs, characters and places, country codes, states or provinces, and so on.
- Exportable Data. You can export all the information collected from your event customers into Excel or CSV format for creating reports, planning new marketing strategies, reviewing attendee statistics, and so on.
- Event Venue Profiles. The venue manager in EE 4 allows details about a venue to be made available throughout the Event Espresso admin and the front-end of your site to inform visitors of the location of your event. The venue record has many standard WP settings such as tags, categories, discussion settings, comments, etc., but also includes venue details like venue seating capacity, venue site URL, telephone number, venue address, maps, etc. You can also display venue profiles in different locations on your WP theme as well as 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 specific venue.
- A Community Of Event Experts. Event Espresso gives you access to a community of experienced event managers, developers, designers, internet marketers and businesses who also use the plugin. You can interact with other Event Espresso users via their community chat room, support forums, job board, and social media discussions on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Google+.
- Invoice Payment Reminders. Follow-up potential attendees who have not made payment for their booking with a standard but personalized PDF invoice with one click. Your invoices will reference registered customers who have not paid their registration in full by name, give them the amount owing, and include links to the event information, a payment url and a link to download a PDF invoice.
- Transaction Reports. Event reporting provides you with data of all the registrations and transactions, allowing you to track the performance of your events with the aggregate number of people who have registered and how much money you have collected.
Additional features include:
- Hooks, Actions And Filters. These allow developers to implement safer and more reliable customizations and extensions to the Event Espresso application that are fully compatible with the WordPress development platform.
- Metabox Management & Organization. Event Espresso leverages the WordPress user interface, which gives you the ability to reconfigure the user interface to suit your workflow. Each meta box can be collapsed, re-arranged or entirely deleted from the workflow configuration.
- Autonomy, Flexibility & Value: According to the philosophy stated on their site, 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 mission, the company operates on a model that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money in the process.
The premium edition of Event Espresso also comes with over 40 additional features, including:
- Live-filtering when searching for events within the Event Espresso admin.
- Default surcharge (similar to adding a service tax to each ticket).
- Default payment status.
Addons
In addition to a comprehensive array of features, Event Espresso provides “add ons”, which allow users to further expand the capabilities of your event management system.
Some of these add ons include:
- Events Vector Maps Template Add-on: The Vector Maps custom events list template lets you display scheduled events by location. There are four maps available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Recurring Events Management Add-on: The Recurring Events management add-on lets you put events on autopilot by scheduling recurring events weeks or months ahead. You can schedule as many classes, meetings, courses and conferences in the future as you want. Event Espresso will automatically open and close registrations for all of these recurring events.
- Events Category Accordion Template Add-on: The Category Accordion template displays categories in a simple list. Clicking the category name displays all events related to that category and closes previously open categories.
- Social Coupons Integration Add on: If your web site uses Groupon.com you can easily accept Groupon codes to your events. You can even specify whether events accept the social coupons or not.
- Custom Template Addon: The Custom Template addon can display your events in a variety of exciting and interesting ways.
- Seating Chart Addon: 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 addon lets you promote reserved or assigned seating to your events and venues directly from your WordPress website. The Seating Chart add-on lets you manage the experience for your customers and design assigned seating charts and attach single prices to every seat.
- Multiple Event Registration Add-on: The Multiple Event registration addon gives potential attendees the ability to register for 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 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.
- EE4 Events Calendar Add on: This add on uses the WordPress calendar to display events and categories of events via an attractive graphical calendar.
- MailChimp Integration: The MailChimp add-on lets you auto-register attendees to a specific autoresponder list or group within your MailChimp account.
Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to its plugin, including new add-ons.
For full details about the latest Event Espreso features and add-ons, visit the plugin website here:
Testimonials
Here are a few of the testimonials that satisfied customers have written 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
”…it really does blow everything else that’s out there out of the water.” Chris Reynolds, Arcane Palette Creative Design
”Hello. I wanted to say that I’ve purchased Event Espresso twice now for two different organizations and have had great success with the purchases. Outside of photography, I also build small websites with WordPress as the CMS. I built two websites for two different martial arts organizations who host yearly seminars and tournaments. The plug in has provided a way for attendees to sign up online from both Canada and the United States with ease, and also allowed the organizations to easily manage payments, attendee lists, and many other aspects of the events. Thanks to Seth for creating such a great plug in, and for your constant support!” James Zedd, James Zedd Photography
Event Espresso Tips
Whether you are a motivational speaker, presenter, concert promoter, or event management professional, there are just unlimited possibilities of what you can do with the Event Espresso software.
After purchasing the plugin and becoming a registered owner, search the forums for tips and practical suggestions to streamline your event management and registration process or enhance the experience of your event customers.
Event Espresso Support
Event Espresso works with with most WP plugins and WP themes that follow standard WordPress development guidelines. If you do need help with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides excellent support, as many of its satisfied plugin customers attest:
”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 Event Espresso plugin provides amazing support that includes 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 an established team of experienced WordPress developers with a proven track record of support, so this is definitely a solution you can depend on to organize and manage your events.
Event Espresso Cost
Event Espresso is available in a number of editions, including a FREE basic edition (named Event Espresso Decaf). For personal support and advanced software features, however, you may want to consider using one of the paid plugin editions below:
- Personal License – This enables you to configure Event Espresso on one site only. Includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything License Edition – This edition enables you to configure Event Espresso on 1 domain only. Cost includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium addons and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $279.95.
- Developer Licensing – This enables you to install Event Espresso on 5 domains. Cost includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Cost = $249.95.
The cost to purchase the Event Espresso plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Currently, the software retails for the prices shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Espresso
Note: The above reflects the pricing when this article was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin developer when you visit the website.
Additional Plugin Information
The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to the software. Make sure to remain subscribed to their customer update list to receive the latest information and updates.
Use the software’s online documentation pages to find answers to common questions about setup and how to use Event Espresso, and the support forums for questions related to a specific situation, or to notify developers about errors and leave feedback.
For all documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso website.
Our Recommendation
Event Espresso is the leading WP event registration and ticketing manager plugin, used by thousands of WP site owners.
If you are a WordPress user and you intend to run events that require managing dates and venues, registering attendees, or reserving tickets, then you will probably not find a more suitable solution for your needs than Event Espresso.
For more information, visit the plugin website: Event Espresso
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