Do you currently run or plan to run events that require bookings or registrations, such as seminars, training courses, non-profit fund raisers, marketing events, or even a large-scale event such as a trade show, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to register to attend or participate?
Managing event registrations can be a complicated and time-consuming process. You need to co-ordinate scheduling, available dates and spaces, participant numbers, data administration, collecting payments and invoicing, confirmations, reminders and alerts, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and delivering tickets to event registrants.
There are many advantages to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can streamline your business processes, save time and reduce costs, help you easily replicate previously-run events, give event managers more control, create a better user experience and increase your sales.
The problem is that setting up an online event booking system can be very expensive.
The good news is that if you run a WordPress-based digital presence, you can download and install an inexpensive and professional online event booking solution.
Introducing …
Event Espresso
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin for WordPress lets you easily schedule multiple events and begin processing online bookings in just a few minutes.
(Set up multiple events and accept online event registrations with Event Espresso)
Event Espresso is a feature-packed application that gives you full control over the event registration management process.
Create custom registration forms
You can use a range of event registration strategies, from simple online registration and straight up ticket-selling, to creating custom registration forms in order to better understand your event participants, or integrating your event bookings with social media and autoresponders.
View detailed information about event attendees
Important: Currently, Event Espresso supports two different versions of their software: EE 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new Event Espresso 4 is considerably different than the older EE 3, as the plugin has been redeveloped using a different structure to enable future growth and expansion. The EE 4 plugin platform has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and pricing. The company plans to eventually retire EE 3, so keep this in mind as you read more about the benefits and advantages of this plugin.
For more details go here:
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 And Ticketing Solution
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your current online presence into a feature-rich and professional event management website … from custom registration forms and automated response emails, to attendee limits, multiple pricing levels and discount codes, to printable tickets and even seating charts.
Better Business Productivity
By using a web-based event registration system 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 making it easier for participants to perform the registration by themselves.
Allowing your customers to do the data themselves frees up your time and lets you invest more of your attention on creating a memorable event.
More Control Over The User Experience
As you will soon learn, Event Espresso gives you complete control over the event management and registration process that you want your participants to experience.
Additional benefits and advantages include:
- Significantly Lower Costs: The Event Espresso plugin is a very low cost online event registration management solution compared to other options or using a 3rd party provider. This is made possible by using a model where you buy the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and then purchase add-ons when you need new features.
- More Sales: Event Espresso allows you to accept new sign-ups outside normal business hours. In addition, Event Espresso social and marketing features (see below) let people who are interested in registering for your event invite their friends who may be interested in attending.
- Green Event Sign Up Process: With Event Espresso, the event registration process can remain wholly in digital form, eliminating typical paper waste from tasks related to enrollment.
- Own Your Data. You own all the information you acquire from your event participants.
Event Espresso Features
Event Espresso provides functionality to end-users through built-in features (these are included with the software) and optional features that you can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso offers many built-in to WP users. Here are just some of these:
- Fast and easy to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Multiple Dates and Times Per Event. In EE 4, events can have many dates and times (called datetimes), which these can be managed from one single event.
- Custom Confirmation Emails. Configure automated registration and payment confirmation emails to communicate with event clients.
- Collect Payments. Event Espresso integrates with several payment gateways, allowing you to collect payments prior to running your events.
- Smart Single Page Checkout Process. The Event Espresso 4 checkout process is fast and intuitive. Registrants are given the option to automatically copy the primary registrant’s information for any added participants.
- Spam Protection. Reduce the chance of spammers and bot software programs creating fake registrations on your site with reCAPTCHA features to provide human authentication.
- Mobile Registration And Ticketing Apps. The Event Espresso mobile registration system allows you to authenticate tickets, speed up in-venue registrations, set up various check-in “stations” and track attendees.
- Manual Registration. you have the option of registering event attendees at the door, or send in paper forms for manual processing later.
- No Ticket Events. Create events without requiring registrants to select tickets. Use Event Espresso for all kinds of events, not only those that need tickets.
- Private Comments On Contacts. Keep notes about event registrants on their profile. Private notes helps you keep a record of when event registrants contacted you, your internal notes, and how you have assisted your contacts.
- SEO Friendly Page URLs. Keyword rich event page Web links leverage your WordPress Permalinks configuration settings. SEO-friendly urls with topic-relevant keywords enhance the context of your events and is favored by search engines, helping you bring a more targeted audience to your website.
- Your Organization Settings. you can configure your profile to display throughout Event Espresso and your WP themes. Organization information include: company name, street address, city, state, country, zip code, primary contact email address, telephone number, tax number, logo, Facebook profile URL, Twitter URL, LinkedIn URL, Pinterest URL, Google+ URL, Instagram URL.
- Import Event Information. Event Espresso 4 provides a CSV-based importing capability that allows you to upload a lot of event data all at one time. You can export, edit and import data for events, datetimes, ticketing information, prices, registration questions, venues, terms, taxonomies, term relationships and more.
- Register Multiple Participants. EE 4 allows a single person or a group to enroll multiple attendees at once. You can control how many people are able to enroll in one session by specifying either limits on ticket purchases per order, or per-ticket minimums and maximums.
- Automatic Software Updates. Event Espresso offers easy one-click plugin installation upgrades to make sure that you have the latest features and to keep your software installation compatible with the latest version of WordPress.
- Invoice Payment Reminders. Follow-up potential attendees who have not paid in full for their admission with a standard but personalized invoice with just one click. Your invoices will reference registered customers who have not paid their registration yet by name, display the amount they owe, and include a link to the event, a payment url and a link to download the invoice.
- Event Posts. Publish your events using pages or posts and take advantage of WordPress custom post types. You can also customize the templates to display events in your own custom way.
Extra features include:
- Hooks, Actions & Filters. These allow you to implement safer and more reliable customizations and extensions to the Event Espresso application that are compatible with WordPress.
- Full Logging & Remote Logging. Event Espresso 4 allows you to output a log file with debugging data that can be useful for developers when potential application errors.
- Flexibility, Autonomy & Value For Money: 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 goals, the software has been built using 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 comes with over 40 additional features, including:
- Email shortcodes that includes participant data in emails and email newsletters.
- Default surcharge (the same as applying a service tax to every ticket).
- Category titles and descriptions on event listings.
Add-Ons
As mentioned earlier, Event Espresso provides “addons”, which allow customers to further expand the capabilities 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 upcoming events by location. There are 4 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 add as many future events as you want. Event Espresso will then automatically open and close bookings for all recurring events.
- Events Category Accordion Template Addon: The Category Accordion template shows categories as a simple list. Clicking a category name displays all events related to that category and closes previously open categories.
- Events Social Sharing Addon: Add social sharing features to the end of your Event Espresso “thank you” page that allows your registrants to post a message about their event registration on Twitter and Facebook after registration.
- WP User Integration: The WP User Integration addon lets you take advantage of the WordPress user system. With the WP User Integration add-on you can give users a special incentive by offering member pricing and overriding event prices when members are logged in. You can even set up member-only events where only registered users of the site can have access to these special events. Members can also enter personal data into their profile page allowing them to quickly register for events by auto-filling in the personal information on the event registration form. Users can also look up event history and pay for future events.
- Seating Chart Addon: The seating chart add-on is suitable 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 add-on lets you 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 each seat.
- Event Ticketing Add on: The Ticketing add on adds the ability to generate tickets with bar codes. The Bar Scanning addon adds the ability to scan ticket bar codes. The ticketing add-on includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple barcode types are included for managing check-in scans at the door. Registrants 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 registrants and to validate tickets.
- Events Table View Template Addon: The Events Table Template addon provides you with a simple and easy-to-use system that lets you modify 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 allows web developers to build custom templates using one of the included templates as a source template.
- JSON API Add-on: The Event Espresso JSON API addon gives permission for other applications, websites, mobile applications, etc… to access your Event Espresso information through an Application Programming Interface (API).
Note: The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to its plugin, including new addons.
For more information about the latest Event Espreso features and add-ons, check out the plugin here:
Customer Feedback
Below are some of the many testimonials that satisfied users have posted 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
“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
”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
Useful Tips
Whether you are an education services provider, presenter, seminar planner, or event consultant, there are just countless possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso plugin.
After downloading your copy of the plugin and becoming a licensed user, go through the forums for inspiration and practical suggestions to improve your event management workflow and enhance the experience of your registrants.
Plugin Support
Event Espresso is compatible with most WP plugins and WordPress themes that follow standard WP development rules. If you have problems with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides great support, as so many of its users attest:
“I’m really impressed with not only the application itself but the support. I have rarely seen such a responsive support staff than at EE. They rock…I highly recommend this plugin!” sock2me
The Event Espresso software provides comprehensive support including access to a support forum, comprehensive 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.
Additionally, Event Espresso boasts an established team of experienced web developers with a proven track record of support, so this is definitely a plugin you can rely on to organize and manage your events.
Software Price
Event Espresso is available in a number of editions, including a FREE basic edition (called Event Espresso Decaf). For personal support and advanced plugin features, however, you should consider downloading one of the premium plugin editions below:
- Personal License – This license enables you to configure Event Espresso on one domain only. Cost includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $69.95.
- Everything Edition – This license enables you to run Event Espresso on 1 site only. Includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium addons and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $279.95.
- Developer License – This option lets you set up Event Espresso on five sites. Includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $249.95.
Pricing for the Event Espresso plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the software is selling for the prices shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Management And Ticketing Registration Software For WordPress
Note: The above reflects the pricing 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 its software. Make sure to remain subscribed to their customer update list to receive the latest information and updates.
Look up the plugin’s documentation tools to find answers to common questions about setting up and using Event Espresso, and visit the support forums for questions related to a specific use-case, or to report problems and share 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 management plugin, used by thousands of WP website owners.
If you are a WordPress user and you plan to run events that require scheduling dates, times and venues (offline and online), booking attendees, and/or selling seating, then you will probably not find a better WP plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For complete details, visit the plugin website: Event Espresso
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