Does your company currently run or plan to run events that require handling bookings or registrations, such as seminars, group courses, charity fund-raisers, corporate functions, or even a large-scale event like a concert, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to register to attend or participate?
Co-ordinating event bookings can be a complex process. You will probably have to manage scheduling, event dates, participant numbers, data processing and storage, payment processing and invoicing, confirmations, reminders, cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special needs and delivering tickets to event registrants.
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 reduce costs, help you easily duplicate recurring events, give you more control, improve client experience and grow your sales.
The problem is that this can be very expensive.
Fortunately, if you own a WordPress-based web site, you can set up an inexpensive and professional web-based event registration solution.
Introducing …
Event Espresso – Event Management & Ticketing Registration System For WordPress
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration software allows you to easily schedule an event and begin processing online registrations in a few minutes.
(Set up multiple events and take online event registrations with Event Espresso)
Event Espresso is a flexible and feature-rich plugin that gives you complete control of the event registration management process.
Create custom event registration forms
You can employ a range of event registration strategies, from simple online bookings and straight up ticket-selling, to creating custom registration forms for collecting detailed information about your participants, or integrating your event registration forms with social media and email marketing solutions.
Access detailed information about your event attendees
Note: Currently, Event Espresso provides two different versions of their plugin: EE 3 and EE 4. The new EE 4 is completely different than the older Event Espresso 3, as the software is being redeveloped using a different structure to allow for future expansion. The EE 4 plugin platform has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and pricing. The developers aim to eventually migrate completely to Event Espresso 4, so keep this in mind as you learn more about the benefits and features of using this plugin.
Go here to learn more about the plugin:
Benefits Of Using Event Espresso
Here are just a few of the benefits of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your web site:
Hands-Free Event Registration Management And Ticketing System
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your existing web site into a fully-featured event management site … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to maximum seating limits, multiple pricing levels and discount codes, to printable tickets and even seating charts.
Higher Business Productivity
By using a web-based event registration solution like Event Espresso, you save time and increase your business productivity by practically doing away with the need to process registrations manually.
Essentially, you are facilitating event participants to enroll themselves.
Allowing your participants to do all of the data entry frees you up from doing administration and lets you spend more resources on delivering a more unique event.
Full Control Over The User Experience
As you will see in a moment, Event Espresso gives you full control over the event management and registration process that you want your customers to experience.
Some additional benefits of the plugin include the following:
- Reduced Costs: The Event Espresso plugin gives you a very low cost online event registration management solution compared to other options or using a 3rd party service provider. This is made possible by using a model where users pay for the core plugin (which suits the needs of most users) and then purchase addons when you need additional features.
- More Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept new event bookings outside normal business hours. In addition, Event Espresso social sharing features and add-ons (see below) let people interested in registering for your event share your information with other people they know who may be interested.
- Green And Paperless Event Booking Process: With Event Espresso, your event booking process remains wholly online, reducing typical paper consumption from tasks related to enrollment.
- Own Your Data. You control all the data you acquire from event attendees.
Features
The Event Espresso software delivers functionality to end-users through standard features (these are included with the plugin) and optional features that users can buy for an additional cost, called add-ons.
Event Espresso offers many built-in to website owners. Here are just some:
- Fast and simple to install and implement. Ready to start using in minutes.
- Multiple Dates and Times Per Event. In Event Espresso 4, events can have many dates and times (datetimes), which these can be managed from a single event.
- Event Calendar. Attendees can easily see your upcoming events and add these to their schedule with the calendar.
- Collect Payments. Event Espresso seamlessly integrates with payment gateways, enabling you to collect payments prior to running events.
- Google Maps. Google Maps integration enables you to configure the display of Google Maps on the event listing and event details pages.
- Spam Protection. Reduce the risk of spamming and bot software programs making fake registrations by using reCAPTCHA features that provide human validation.
- Discount Codes. Leverage promotion and multiple discount codes to encourage visitors to take action immediately, or make your offerings more appealing for others. This is also practical for helping to sell out events close to deadlines.
- Manual Registration. you have the option of registering event participants when they show up, or sending in paper forms for manual registration later.
- Waiting Lists. Prospective participants can subscribe to a waiting list if your event has reached maximum capacity. You can also make it a requirement wait-listed members pay for their spots if you plan to add more capacity for your event.
- Public Commenting. Add “social proof” by encouraging potential customers to ask questions about your event and past customers to post comments that can help others decide whether or not to enroll. Moderation settings for commenting are set up in the WP default commenting system.
- Keyword-Rich Event Page URLs. Keyword rich event page Web links take advantage of your Permalinks configuration settings. Search engine friendly web links that include relevant keywords add to the context of your pages and is favored by search engines, helping you get a more targeted audience to your website.
- Full Control Of Your Event Management. Event Espresso puts event managers in full control of every aspect of an event’s registration and ticketing, and lets you automate this process with event management tools that include staff and venue management, custom event designs, payment processing, wait lists, limits on attendees, print-ready ticketing and more.
- Exportable Information. You can output all the data gathered from your event customers into Excel or CSV format for compiling advanced reports, implementing new marketing strategies, analyzing attendee statistics, etc..
- WYSIWYG Editor. Event Espresso uses the native WordPress Visual editor, so you can quickly and easily add graphic images and create and edit your event descriptions without knowledge of HTML or CSS, just like any standard WordPress post or page.
- Event Espresso Community. Event Espresso gives you access to an expert community of event managers and other plugin users. You can engage with other members of the Event Espresso community using their community chat room, user support forums, job board, and social media discussions on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Google+.
- Social Sharing. Event participants and site visitors can help promote your events using social media sharing 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 even customize the page templates to display events in your own unique way.
Extra features include:
- Hooks, Actions And Filters. These features allow developers to implement safer and more reliable customizations and extensions to the Event Espresso plugin that are compatible with WordPress.
- Control Box Management And Organization. Event Espresso leverages the WP 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 completely removed from the workflow configuration.
- Autonomy, Flexibility And Value For Money: According to the philosophy stated on their web 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 objectives, the company operates on a modular that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money as a result.
The premium version of Event Espresso also includes over 40 additional features, including:
- Email shortcodes for including participant data in emails and email newsletters.
- Default surcharge (similar to applying a service fee to every ticket).
- Category titles and descriptions on event listings.
Event Espresso Add-Ons
As well as a comprehensive array of features, Event Espresso provides “addons”, which allow end-users to further enhance the functionality of managing an event.
Some of these add ons include:
- Events Vector Maps Template Add-on: The Vector Maps custom events list template allows you to display upcoming events by location. There are 4 maps available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Recurring Events Manager Add-on: The Recurring Events manager addon enables you to put your events on autopilot by scheduling repeated events weeks or months in advance. You can create as many future events as you need. Event Espresso will then automatically open and close registrations for all recurring events.
- Events Category Accordion Template Addon: The Category Accordion template shows categories as a simple list. Clicking on a category name shows all events associated with that category and closes any previously open categories.
- Social Coupons Integration Add on: If your 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.
- WP User Integration: The WP User Integration add-on lets you take full advantage of the WP user system. With the WP User Integration addon you can give your users a special incentive by offering member pricing and overriding event pricing when members are logged in. You can even set up member-only events where only registered users of the website can have access to these special events. Members can also add personal details into their profile page allowing them fast registration for events by auto-filling in the personal information on the event registration form. Your users can also look up past events and make payment for new events.
- Seating Chart Addon: The seating chart addon is great 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 offer reserved or assigned seating to your events and venues from your WordPress website. The Seating Chart add-on lets you control the experience for your attendees and design assigned seating charts and attach a single price to every seat.
- Event Ticketing Add-on: The Ticketing addon adds the ability to create tickets with bar codes. The Bar Scanning add-on adds the capacity to scan ticket bar codes. The ticketing add on includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple bar code types are included for handling check-in scans at venues. 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 Table Template Add on: The Events Table Template addon provides you with an 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 web developers design their own custom templates using one of the templates included as a base template.
- JSON API Add on: The new Event Espresso JSON API addon enables other software applications, websites, mobile applications, 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 plugin, including new addons.
To learn more about the latest Event Espreso features and add-ons, visit the plugin website here:
Plugin Users – Feedback
Here are some of the testimonials that satisfied customers have written about Event Espresso:
”My clients have used Event Espresso for Transportation (Cadet Bus for leave), Parties (tailgates and brewery tours), and Horse-back riding lessons and camps. What a terrific plug-in and fantastic support from Seth!” Nina, Blue Iris Web Design
”Customizing an Event Registration plugin for WordPress by @EventEspresso. Love the pro version. Highly Recommended!” Joshua Garity
”I’m so excited to fire Eventbrite! Event Espresso has an amazing WP plugin for event management. We’re testing it now & are very impressed! In a nutshell Event Espresso saves us money & does everything Eventbrite did before. :)” Dustin Nay
Event Espresso Tips
Whether you are an education services provider, presenter, conference promoter, or event professional, there are simply countless possibilities of what you can do with the Event Espresso plugin.
After purchasing your copy of the plugin and becoming a licensed user, go through the user forum for useful ideas and practical ways to improve your event management and registration workflow or improve the experience of your participants.
Support
Event Espresso is fully compatible with all WP plugins and WordPress themes that follow standard WordPress development guidelines. If you do need support with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides excellent user support, as so 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
Event Espresso provides comprehensive support that includes access to support forums, in-depth online documentation with faqs, knowledgebase 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.
In addition, Event Espresso boasts an established team of experienced WordPress developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely a plugin you can rely on to organize and manage your events.
Event Espresso Pricing
Event Espresso is available in various editions, including a FREE basic edition (referred to as Event Espresso Decaf). For support and advanced plugin functionality, however, you will want to consider purchasing one of the paid plugin editions below:
- Personal License Edition – This edition allows you to run 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 allows you to configure Event Espresso on one site only. Price includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium addons and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $279.95.
- Developer License Edition – This option lets you configure Event Espresso on 5 sites. Includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and 1 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. Currently, the software is selling for the prices shown above. Check the plugin’s website for the latest price: Event Espresso – Event Management And Ticket Registration Software For WordPress
Note: The pricing above was current when this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin seller when you visit the website.
Additional Information
Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to its plugin. Make sure to remain subscribed to their customer update list to receive the latest information and updates.
Search the plugin’s online documentation tools to find answers to common questions about setting up and how to use Event Espresso, and the support forums for questions related to a specific situation, or to report bugs and give feedback.
For detailed documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso web site.
Our Recommendation
Event Espresso is the leading WordPress event booking and ticketing management plugin, used by thousands of users.
If you are a WordPress user and you plan to run events that involve managing dates and venues (offline and online), booking attendees, and/or reserving tickets or seating, then you will probably not find a better WP plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For full details, visit the plugin website here: Event Espresso – WordPress Event Manager And Ticket Registration Software
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