Online Registrations WordPress Archives - WordPress For Non-Techies: Free WordPress Tutorials

Does your business currently run or plan to run events that need to accept bookings, such as workshops, community courses, charity fund-raisers, networking events, or even a large-scale event like a festival, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to book to attend or participate?

Co-ordinating event bookings can be a complex and time-consuming process. You will most likely have to co-ordinate scheduling, available dates and spaces, registration numbers, data collection, collecting payments and sending invoices, confirmations and reservations, reminders and notifications, cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and delivering tickets to event participants.

There are many advantages to setting up an automated web-based event registration system. It can streamline your business processes, save time and lower expenses, help you easily reproduce similar events, give event managers more control, improve client experience and increase your sales.

The problem is that this can be costly.

The good news is that if you run a WordPress-based site, you can easily install a very inexpensive and highly professional online event registration solution.

Announcing …

Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticketing Management

Plugin Description

The Event Espresso online event registration software enables you to easily create an event and begin accepting registrations in just a few minutes.

(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and take online event bookings)

Event Espresso is a feature-packed application that gives you full control over your event registration management process.

Create custom event registration forms

You can use 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 participants, or integrating your event bookings with social media sites like Facebook.

View detailed information about event attendees

Note: Currently, Event Espresso supports two different versions of their plugin: EE 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new EE 4 is impressively different than the older EE 3, as the platform is being redeveloped using a different structure to accommodate future growth and expansion. The Event Espresso 4 plugin software 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 this plugin.

More info:

Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticketing Management

Plugin Benefits

Here are just a few of the benefits of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your website or blog:

Automated Event Registration Management

Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your existing digital 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 even seating charts.

Increased Business Productivity

By using a web-based event registration solution like Event Espresso, you save time and improve your business productivity by literally doing away with the need to process registrations and bookings manually.

Essentially, you are making it easier for attendees to register themselves.

Letting your enrollees to do the data entry frees you up from doing admin work and lets you direct more of your resources on organizing a more unique event.

Complete Control Over The User Experience

As you will soon discover, Event Espresso gives you more control over the event management and booking process that you want your participants to experience.

Some additional benefits of the plugin include:

Less Costs: The Event Espresso plugin is a very low cost online event registration management solution compared to developing your own software or using a third-party provider. The cost is kept to a minimum through a model where Event Espresso users buy the core plugin (which suits the needs of most users) and buy optional addons only when you need new functionality.
Increased Sales: Event Espresso allows you to accept online event bookings outside traditional business hours. Not only that, but, Event Espresso social sharing features and add-ons (see below) let people interested in attending your event share your information with friends who may also be interested.
Paperless Event Sign Up Process: With Event Espresso, the event signup process is transacted entirely in digital form, reducing traditional paper waste from tasks related to administration.
All Data Belongs To You. You control all the information obtained from event participants.

Plugin Features

The Event Espresso software provides functionality to end-users through standard features (these are included with the plugin) and optional features that you can purchase, called add-ons.

Event Espresso provides a number of great built-in to site owners. Here are just some:

Fast and easy to install and use. Ready to use in minutes.
Multiple Ticket And Pricing Options. Event Espresso lets you set up as many kinds of tickets as you want and set different prices, limits on ticket quantities, and more.
Customized Confirmation Email Message. Easily set up custom automatic registration and payment confirmation emails to communicate with event participants.
Ticket Selector. Present a number of ticket options to prospective registrants so they can choose the ticket(s) that will best fit their needs.
Google Maps. Google Maps integration allows event managers to configure the settings of Google Maps on the event listing and event details sections.
Spam Protection. Reduce the likelihood of spammers and bots making bogus registrations on your web site by using reCAPTCHA features to provide human validation.
Mobile Registration & Ticketing Apps. The Event Espresso mobile registration system enables you to authenticate tickets, speed up in-venue registrations, create various check-in “stations” and track event attendees.
Manual Registration. you have the option of booking event attendees when they show up, or sending in paper-based registration forms for manual inputting later.
Waiting Lists. Prospective participants can join a waiting list if your event has reached the maximum number of attendees. You can also specify that waiting list members pre-pay if you plan to expand capacity for the event.
RSS Event Feeds. Keep your site visitors updated about your events, bring in more visitors and widen your content distribution with the built-in XML RSS events feed.
Draft (status) Events. Draft events let you build an event at your own leisure without publishing it to your site. You can work on your event until you are ready to publish it on your website, or schedule to publish your event page at a later date and time.
Country-specific Settings. You can configure the country and currency settings to be used throughout Event Espresso, such as currency, currency signs, decimal characters and places, country codes, regions, etc.
Import Event Data. EE 4 provides an advanced importing capability that enables you to easily upload bulk event data all at one time. You can export, edit and import information about events, datetimes, ticketing information, pricing, custom registration questions, venues, terminology, taxonomies, term relationships and more.
Multiple Event Attendee. Event Espresso 4 allows one person or people to register multiple attendees at the same time. Event managers control how many people can register in a single registration session by specifying either limits on ticket purchases per order, or per-ticket minimums and maximums.
Automatic Plugin Updates. Event Espresso provides simple one-click plugin updates to make sure that you have the latest features and to keep your installation compatible with new versions of WordPress.
Social Sharing. Event attendees and your site visitors can help increase exposure for your events using social share buttons.
Categorize Events. If you have several different types of events such as free and paid, conference speakers and breakout sessions, different kinds of exercise classes, etc. you can categorize these to help your attendees to locate what they’re searching for. You can display all events in a category on an 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:

Hooks, Actions & Filters. These features allow web-based software developers to implement safer and more reliable customizations and extensions to the Event Espresso application that are compatible with WordPress.
Maintenance Mode. Pause registration capabilities for normal website visitors whenever you need to make updates on your site. You can still work on the back-end of your site during maintenance mode.
Autonomy, Flexibility & Value: According to the mission statement on their site, Event Espresso’s goal 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 modular and highly effective model that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money as a result.

The premium edition of Event Espresso also comes with over 40 added features, including:

Live-filtering when you search for events in the Event Espresso admin.
Default surcharge (the same as applying a service tax to all tickets).
Option to skip the confirmation page in the registration process.

Addons

In addition to a comprehensive number of features, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow customers to significantly enhance the functionality of the event management system.

Some of these add-ons include:

Events Vector Maps Template Add-on: The Vector Maps custom events list template allows you to display scheduled events by location. There are four maps available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
Recurring Events Dropdown Custom Template Addon: The Recurring Events Drop-down custom template organizes multiple datetime events into a dropdown list.
Events Date Range Template Add-on: The Date Range custom event list template allows your users to search for events that occur in a certain date range.
Social Media Buttons Add on: The social media add-on displays Facebook, Twitter and Google+ buttons in your events. The Social Media add-on is included free with any of the Event Espresso support licenses.
Custom Template Add-on: The Custom Template add on can display your events in a number 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 for venues and events such as theaters, concert halls, play houses, sports arenas and stadiums. The Seating Chart addon lets you offer reserved or assigned seating to your events and venues from your WordPress website. The Seating Chart add on lets you manage the environment for your customers and design assigned seating charts and attach a single price to every seat.
EE4 Event Ticketing And Bar Scanning Addon: The Ticketing add-on gives you the capacity to generate tickets with bar codes. The Bar Scanning add on adds the ability to scan ticket barcodes. The ticketing add-on includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple bar code types are included for managing check-in scans at venues. Attendees 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 registrants and to validate tickets.
EE4 Events Calendar Add-on: This WordPress events calendar displays events and categories of events via an attractive graphical calendar.
EE4 Infusionsoft Integration Addon: With the Event Espresso 4 Infusionsoft App and Merchant Account integration all-in-one sales and marketing software add on, you can easily automate your customer relations and email marketing campaigns to seamlessly capture customer data, track registrations, and accept payments from your website.

Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to its software, including new addons.

For more details about the newest Event Espreso features and add-ons, visit the plugin website:

Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticket Management

User Feedback

Below are a few of the many testimonials that plugin users have posted about Event Espresso:

“It is a very, very slick plugin. It’s one of those plugins where you install it, change a couple of settings, and boom you’re selling tickets.” Brad Williams, WebDevStudios

”Customizing an Event Registration plugin for WordPress by @EventEspresso. Love the pro version. Highly Recommended!” Joshua Garity

”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 a gym owner, trainer, concert promoter, or event management professional, there are just countless possibilities of what you can do with the Event Espresso plugin.

After purchasing your copy of the plugin and becoming a registered owner, search the support forum for inspiration and practical ways to streamline your event management and registration workflow or enhance the experience of your event participants.

Event Espresso Support

Event Espresso is fully compatible with all WP plugins and WP themes that follow standard WordPress coding guidelines. If you have problems with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides highly responsive end-user support, as many of its satisfied users 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 software provides incredible 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 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 a well-staffed team of experienced WordPress web developers with a proven track record of support, so this is definitely software you can rely on to manage your events.

Software Cost

Event Espresso is available in a number of plugin editions, including a FREE basic edition (named Event Espresso Decaf). For personal support and advanced software functionality, however, you may want to consider downloading one of the premium plugin editions below:

Personal License Edition – This allows you to install Event Espresso on 1 domain only. Includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
Everything License Edition – This allows you to set up 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 license allows you to set up Event Espresso on five sites. Price includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $249.95.

Pricing details of the Event Espresso plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. When we last checked, the software retails 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 when this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the website.

Event Espresso – Additional Information

Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to the software. Make sure to stay subscribed to their customer update list to receive the latest information and updates.

Search the software’s online documentation tools for answers to common questions about setting up and how to use Event Espresso, and the support forums for questions related to your particular situation, or to report problems and give feedback.

For all documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso product information pages.

The Bottom Line

Event Espresso is the preferred WP event booking and ticketing management software, used by thousands.

If you are a WordPress site owner and you currently run any event that involves managing dates and venues, enrolling attendees, and/or reserving tickets, then you will probably not find a more suitable plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.