Does your business currently run or plan to run events that require managing bookings, such as seminars, training classes, not-for-profit fund raisers, networking conferences, or even a large-scale event such as an art exhibition, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to register to attend?
Co-ordinating event bookings is a complex and time-consuming process. You will probably need to manage scheduling, date availability, participant numbers, data administration, payment processing and sending invoices, confirmations and reservations, reminders and notifications, cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special needs and providing tickets to event participants.
There are lots of benefits to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can make your business more efficient, save time and reduce expenses, help you easily duplicate previous events, give you more control, create a more enjoyable client experience and grow your sales.
The problem is that setting up an online event booking system can be very costly.
Fortunately, if you own a WordPress-powered site, you can easily install an inexpensive and professional online event registration solution.
Presenting …
Event Espresso – Event Registration & Ticketing Management
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration software lets you easily schedule multiple events and start accepting online registrations in just minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and take online bookings)
Event Espresso is a flexible and feature-packed software that gives you complete control of your event registration management process.
Create custom event registration forms
You can use a number of event registration strategies, from simple online bookings and straight up ticket sales, to creating custom registration forms in order to better understand your attendees, or integrating your event bookings with an autoresponder system for ongoing notifications.
Access detailed information about event attendees
Please Note: At the time of writing this article, Event Espresso is transitioning between two different versions of their software: EE 3 and EE 4. The new EE 4 is completely different than the older EE 3, as the platform is being rebuilt using a different structure to allow for 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 retire Event Espresso 3, so keep this in mind as you read more about the benefits and features of this plugin.
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Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your website or blog:
Hands-Free Event Registration Management And Ticketing Solution
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your existing online presence into a feature-rich and professional event management site … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to attendee 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 increase your business productivity by practically eliminating the need to process registrations and signups manually.
Basically, you are facilitating attendees to perform the registration on their own.
Allowing your enrollees to do the data themselves frees you up from doing admin work and lets you spend more of your resources on creating a memorable event.
More Control Over The User Experience
As you will learn in a moment, Event Espresso gives you more control over the event management process that you want your clients to experience.
Some additional plugin benefits include the following:
- Lower Costs: Event Espresso gives you a very inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to developing your own solution or using a 3rd-party service provider. The cost is kept to a minimum through a model where you start with the core plugin (which suits the needs of most users) and purchase add-ons when you need added functionality.
- Increased Sales: Event Espresso lets you accept online signups 24 hours a day. In addition, Event Espresso social addons (see below) let people who are interested in registering for your event share your information with their friends who may be interested.
- Green Event Sign Up Process: With Event Espresso, the event sign-up process can remain wholly online, eliminating traditional paper consumption from tasks related to admin and record-storage.
- All Data Belongs To You. You control all the data gathered from your event attendees.
Event Espresso Features
The Event Espresso software 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 a number of features to web site owners. Here are just a few:
- Quick and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Multiple Times and Dates Per Event. In Event Espresso 4, events can have many dates and times (called datetimes), which these can be managed from a single event.
- Customizable Event And Registration Page Designs. Customize your events and signup page using Event Espresso’s template options and parts, and HTML and/or CSS.
- Tax Administration Options. Event Espresso 4 provides several ways to handle taxes for your event and report tax fees to registrants when purchasing tickets. You can configure taxes globally or on a per-ticket basis.
- Custom Post Types. Integrate Event Espresso into your WP theme and reuse contact information throughout other areas of your site.
- Spam Protection. Prevent the risk of spamming and bots making fake registrations by using reCAPTCHA option that validate human activity.
- Discount & Promotional Codes. Set up promotion and multiple discount codes to incentivize people to register immediately, or make your offerings more attractive for price-sensitive customers. Also useful for helping to sell-out events close to timelines.
- Contact Profiles & Contact List. EE 4 provides you with the tools to understand who your customers are and how they’ve done business with you.
- Administrative Pre-approval. Control who can participate in your events.
- Event RSS Feeds. Keep your users up-to-date about your events, bring in more visitors and reach a wider audience with the built-in XML RSS events feed.
- Optimized For The Most Recent Version Of WordPress. The EE 4 user interface follows the WordPress guidelines to help you create aesthetically beautiful event pages that are easier to use and mobile-friendly.
- 15+ Languages. Event Espresso can be set up in 15+ languages, and more are being added all the time.
- Default Tickets. If you find yourself creating identical tickets for your events, you can set one of those tickets as your default ticket for all new events simply by checking a box.
- Multiple Attendee Enrolments. EE 4 allows one person or people to purchase multiple tickets and different types of tickets at the same time. Event managers can control how many people are able to enroll in a single registration by specifying either a limit on ticket purchases per order, or per-ticket minimums and maximums.
- Attendee Records. Manage your registrant’s profiles and payment history and keep all of their information organized.
- Team Member Management. Save time and keep your business organized by reusing staff profiles for multiple events or displaying their profile using a shortcode in your event description.
- Categorize Events. If you have multiple types of events like free and paid, conference speakers and breakout sessions, different types of programs and program modules, etc. you can categorize them to make it easier for your registrants to locate what they’re looking for. You can display all events in a category on an event category page, make the events searchable by category, and colour-code your events on the Event Espresso events calendar to make them easier to find, in addition to suggesting new events in the categories that appeal to your existing customers.
Additional 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 your visitors.
- Control Box Management & Reorganization. Event Espresso lets you leverage the WordPress user interface, which brings the ability to reorder the user interface to match your workflow. Each meta box can be collapsed, re-arranged or removed from the page.
- Flexibility, Autonomy & 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 objectives, the software has been built using a model that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money in the process.
The premium version of Event Espresso also comes with over 40 added features, including:
- Email shortcodes for including customer data in emails and newsletters.
- Question groups that simplify the process of reusing the same group of questions for similar events.
- Option to skip the confirmation page in the registration process.
Event Espresso Add-Ons
As mentioned earlier, Event Espresso provides “addons”, which allow software users to significantly enhance the functionality of events.
Some of these add-ons include:
- Events Vector Maps Template Add-on: The Vector Maps custom events list template allows you to display your scheduled events by location. There are 4 maps available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Recurring Events Manager Add on: The Recurring Events management addon lets you put your events on autopilot by scheduling repeated events weeks or months in advance. You can add as many classes, meetings, courses and conferences in the future as you like. Event Espresso will then automatically open and close registrations for all recurring events.
- Events Category Accordion Template Add on: The Category Accordion template displays the categories as a simple list. Clicking the category name displays all events associated with that category and closes previously open categories.
- Events Social Sharing Add-on: This add-on adds social sharing features to the end of your Event Espresso “thank you” page that allows your attendees to post a message about their event registration on Twitter and Facebook after booking.
- WP User Integration: The WP User Integration addon allows you to take advantage of the WordPress user system. With the WP User Integration add-on you can give users a special incentive by offering member prices and overriding event prices when members are logged in. You can even set up member-only events where only registered website users can have access to your special events. Members can also enter personal data into their profile page allowing them fast registration for events by auto-filling in their personal information on the event booking form. Your users can also view event history and make payment for new events.
- Roles And Permissions Basic And Pro Add-on Editions: 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 allow them different permissions with different capabilities, so your staff can help you manage your events or events that other people create. You can customize roles so that a user does not have access to certain parts of your WordPress 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 add on.
- Event Ticketing & Bar Scanning Add on: The Ticketing add on gives you the ability to create tickets with bar codes. The Bar Scanning add-on adds the ability to scan ticket bar codes. The ticketing add on includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple bar code types are included for managing check-in scans at the venue door. 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 attendees and to validate tickets.
- EE4 Events Table Template Add-on: The Events Table Template addon provides you with an easy-to-use system that allows you to change 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 web developers build their own custom templates using one of the included templates as a source template.
- MailChimp Integration Addon: The MailChimp addon allows you to automatically register participants to a particular autoresponder list or group within your MailChimp account.
Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to the software, including new add-ons.
For more details about the latest Event Espreso features and add ons, visit the plugin website here:
Testimonials
Below are some of the many great testimonials that satisfied customers have posted about Event Espresso:
”My hope with this whole integration is to be able to show other school districts an affordable and easy solution to these registrations. I cannot believe how much money they are charged for less by other companies. This has the potential to save schools tens of thousands, which is huge right now.” Kelly, College Station Independent School District
“I just completed my first event using Event Espresso. I really believe without Event Espresso my event would not have been the success it was.” Cathy Earle, Women Only Weekend
”Event Espresso is very nice and functional plugin. Set it up is not very easy for a beginner like me, but you have one of the best support team in your side. They answer all questions in a timely manor. I didn’t know anything about setting up the plugins, Thanks to Event Espresso Support team that now I can find my way around this plugin. Event Espresso helps our company to manage the workshops, keep track of our students, manage the emails, and much more. We upgrade from personal License to Business license in just two weeks of using Personal license. I strongly recommend the Business license.” Ted Karlsalr, Omnilargess
Event Espresso Tips
Whether you are an education services provider, trainer, festival promoter, or event consultant, there are simply countless possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso software.
After downloading your copy of the plugin and becoming a registered owner, search the user forum for inspiration and practical suggestions to streamline your event management workflow and enhance the experience of your event registrants.
Support
Event Espresso is compatible with all WordPress plugins and themes that follow standard WP coding rules. If you have problems with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides excellent support, as so many of its users attest:
”These guys are right on any problem or issue or even general questions. You can’t really put a value high enough on the kind of support these guys offer.” Mark Wigston, Muskoka Graphics
The plugin provides comprehensive support that includes access to a support forum, 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 WordPress web developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely a solution you can count on to organize and manage your events.
Plugin Cost
Event Espresso is available in various editions, including a FREE basic edition (called Event Espresso Decaf). For personal support and advanced plugin options, however, you need to consider downloading one of the ”Pro” plugin editions below:
- Personal Licensing – This license allows you to configure Event Espresso on 1 site only. Includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything Licensing – This license option allows you to run Event Espresso on 1 domain only. Includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add-ons and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $279.95.
- Developer Edition – This enables you to set up Event Espresso on 5 sites. Includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $249.95.
Pricing for the Event Espresso plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the software is being retailed for the prices shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Registration & Ticket Manager
Note: The pricing above was current at the time this review was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin author when you visit the website.
Event Espresso – Additional Information
The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to its plugin. Make sure to register for their newsletter when you visit their site to receive the latest information and updates.
Use the plugin’s documentation tools for answers to common questions about setup and using Event Espresso, and the support forums for questions related to your 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 product site.
Our Recommendation
Event Espresso is the preferred WordPress event registration and ticketing manager software, used and trusted by thousands of companies.
If you own a WordPress-powered site and you currently run any event that involves scheduling dates, times and venues (offline and online), enrolling participants, and selling tickets or seating, then you will probably not find a more suitable plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: Event Espresso
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