Does your organization currently run or plan to run events that need to accept bookings or registrations, such as seminars, group courses, non-profit fund-raisers, marketing functions, or even a large-scale event like a music festival, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to book to attend or participate?
Co-ordinating event registrations is a complex process. You have to co-ordinate event schedules, available dates and spaces, registration numbers, data collection and admin, collecting payments and invoicing, confirmations, reminders and alerts, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special needs and delivering tickets to event attendees.
There are many benefits to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can make your business more efficient, save time and lower costs, help you easily reproduce similar events, give you more control, create a more enjoyable customer experience and grow your sales.
The problem is that this can be costly.
The good news is that if you run a WordPress-based website, you can download and install an inexpensive and highly professional online event booking solution.
Announcing …
Event Espresso – WordPress Event Management & Ticket Registration Software
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration WP software enables you to easily set up multiple events and begin processing bookings in just a few minutes.
(Set up multiple events and take online event registrations with Event Espresso)
Event Espresso is a versatile and feature-rich application 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 enrolments and straight up ticket sales, to creating custom registration forms for collecting detailed information about your attendees, or integrating your event registration forms with an autoresponder system for ongoing notifications.
View detailed information about your event attendees
Please Note: At the time of writing this article, Event Espresso provides two different versions of their plugin: Event Espresso 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new EE 4 is impressively different than the older EE 3, as the platform is being revamped using a different structure to accommodate future growth. The Event Espresso 4 plugin platform has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and pricing. The company plans to eventually move completely to EE 4, so keep this in mind as you read more about the benefits and features of this plugin.
More info:
Benefits Of Using Event Espresso
Here are just some of the benefits of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your website:
Hands-Free Event Registration Management
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your current website or blog into a fully-featured and automated event management website … 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 system like Event Espresso, you save time and increase your business productivity by virtually doing away with the need to process registrations and sign-ups manually.
Essentially, you are making it easier for participants to enroll themselves.
Allowing your enrollees to do all of the data entry frees you up from doing admin work and lets you invest more of your attention on organizing a more enjoyable event.
Full Control Over The User Experience
As you will learn in a moment, Event Espresso gives you full control over the event management process that you want your attendees to experience.
Some additional benefits include:
- Reduced Costs: The Event Espresso plugin is a very low cost online event registration management solution compared to building your own solution or using a third-party provider. The cost is kept low by using a model where you buy the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and buy add ons when you need extra features.
- More Sales: Event Espresso allows you to accept new sign-ups 24 hours a day. In addition, Event Espresso social and marketing addons (see below) let people who are interested in attending your event invite friends who may also be interested.
- Green Event Sign Up Process: With Event Espresso, the event sign-up process is transacted entirely in digital form, significantly reducing traditional paper waste from tasks related to admin and record-storage.
- All Information Belongs To You. You own all the data you obtain from event participants.
Features
Event Espresso provides functionality to users via standard features (these are included with the software) and optional features that customers can buy for an extra cost, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides many great built-in to web site owners. Here are just some of these:
- Fast and simple to install and implement. Be up and running in minutes.
- Multiple Dates and Times Per Event. In Event Espresso 4, events can have multiple dates and times (datetimes), that these can be managed from one single event.
- Customizable Event & Registration Page Designs. You can customize your events and signup page using Event Espresso’s template options and parts, plus HTML and CSS.
- Collect Payments. Event Espresso integrates with leading payment gateways, allowing you to collect payments before running 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 additional attendees.
- Spam Protection. Prevent the risk of spammers and robots making bogus registrations on your web site by using reCAPTCHA settings to provide human authentication.
- In-App Documentation Systems. Event Espresso 4 provides 3 detailed in-app documentation systems: Help Tours, Help Tabs and Tool Tips.
- Event Check-In List. Generate a list of registrants and confirm those who have attended.
- No Ticket Events. You can create events without the requirement for participants to book tickets. Event Espresso can be used for any type of event, not only when tickets are required.
- XML RSS Event Feeds. Keep your users up-to-date about your events, drive quality traffic and widen your content distribution with the built-in XML RSS events feed.
- Search Engine Friendly URLs. Keyword-rich event page Web links take advantage of your WP site’s Permalinks configuration settings. “Pretty” web links with topic-relevant keywords add to the context of your events and is favored by search engines, helping you drive a more targeted audience to your site.
- 15+ Languages. Event Espresso can be run in 15+ languages, with more languages planned.
- Upload Event Data. Event Espresso 4 provides an advanced importing capability that allows you to easily upload a lot of event data all at one time. You can export, edit and upload data for events, datetimes, tickets, pricing, custom registration questions, venues, terms, taxonomies, term relationships and more.
- WordPress Visual Editor. Event Espresso uses the native WP Visual editor, allowing you to quickly and easily add graphic images and create your content without knowledge of HTML or CSS, just like any standard WordPress post or page.
- Automatic Upgrades. Event Espresso offers simple one-click plugin installation upgrading to ensure that you have the newest features and to keep your plugin installation compatible with the latest version of WordPress.
- Staff Manager. Save time and stay organized by reusing staff profiles for multiple events or displaying profile information such as team member’s contact information, resume and photo using a shortcode in any event description.
- 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 templates to display event information in your own unique way.
Additional features include:
- Hooks, Actions And Filters. These features allow web-based software developers to implement safer and more reliable customizations and extensions to the Event Espresso software that are 100% compatible with WordPress.
- Full Logging, Remote Logging. EE 4 allows you to create a log file with debugging data which can be useful for developers who are potential plugin errors.
- 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 goals, the software has been built using a modular and effective 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:
- Live-filtering when searching for events within the Event Espresso admin.
- Question groups that simplify the process of reusing a series of questions for similar events.
- Default payment status.
Addons
As well as a very large number of features, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow you to further expand the functionality of events.
Some of these add-ons include:
- Events Grid Template Add on: Displays events in a pure CSS grid-like structure using the featured image. Hovering over the image will display further information. If an event does not have a featured image, a default image will be used.
- Recurring Events Management Addon: The Recurring Events manager addon enables you to put events on autopilot by scheduling repeated events weeks or months … even years ahead. You can schedule as many classes, meetings, courses and conferences in the future as you need. Event Espresso will then automatically open and close bookings for all recurring events.
- Events Calendar Table Template Add on: The Calendar Table template is a list template with a bold date and customizable “register now” button. The template can also be customized to display an event thumbnail instead of a date.
- Social Media Buttons Add on: The social media add-on displays Facebook, Twitter and Google+ buttons in your events. The Social Media add-on comes free with any of the Event Espresso support licenses.
- Custom Files Add-on: The Custom Files add on provides PHP files that let you bypass certain aspects of the plugin.
- Seating Chart Addon: The seating chart addon 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 add-on lets you promote reserved or assigned seating to your events and venues from your WordPress site. The Seating Chart addon lets you control the experience for your customers and design assigned seating charts and attach single prices 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 ability to scan ticket barcodes. The ticketing add-on includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple barcode types are included for handling check-in scans at venues. Registrants 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 Addon: This add-on uses the WordPress calendar to display events and categories of events using a nice graphical calendar.
- JSON API Add on: The new Event Espresso JSON API add on permits other software applications, websites, mobile apps, etc… to access your Event Espresso details through an API (Application Programming Interface).
Note: Event Espresso regularly adds 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:
Testimonials
Here are some of the many great testimonials that satisfied users have written about Event Espresso:
”Broadcasting my support for Event Espresso will be a pleasure. I recently helped the Webmaster at a sister church configure your event manager for their site, so I can say with confidence and from experience, that Event Espresso is the best Event Manager plugin ever!” Philip Simpson, The Charlotte Church
”I have to say that it has been the right choice for me…I’ve been extremely pleased with the way my site is working.” Robin, RobinTime
”I can’t even imagine what I would want the plugin to do that it doesn’t already do. I’m really happy with the features.” Jim Harmer, Improve Photography
Plugin Tips
Whether you are a motivational speaker, trainer, festival 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 registered user, search the support forum for useful ideas and practical ways to streamline your event management workflow or improve the experience of your event attendees.
Plugin Support
Event Espresso works with with all WordPress plugins and themes that follow WP coding standards. If you experience issues with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides excellent end-user support, as many of its customers confirm:
”By far, the customer service experience with Event Espresso has been the best of any WordPress Theme or Paid Plugin that I’ve used in the past two years!” Megan Murray, Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe
The Event Espresso software provides great support that includes access to a support forum, in-depth 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 developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely software you can count on to run your events.
Event Espresso 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 options, however, you need to consider purchasing one of the paid plugin versions below:
- Personal Licensing – This lets you install Event Espresso on 1 site only. It includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Cost = $69.95.
- Everything License – This option lets you run Event Espresso on 1 site only. Includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add-ons and 1 year of upgrades and support. Cost = $279.95.
- Developer License – This edition enables you to install Event Espresso on five sites. Includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $249.95.
Price details for the Event Espresso plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Presently, the plugin retails for the pricing shown above. Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing: Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticketing Management
Note: The pricing above was current at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin seller when you visit the site.
Event Espresso – Additional Plugin Information
Event Espresso regularly adds 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 online documentation tools for answers to common questions about setup and using Event Espresso, and visit the support forums if you have questions related to a specific use-case, or to notify developers about errors and leave feedback.
For detailed documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso product site.
The Bottom Line
Event Espresso is the preferred WP event registration and ticketing management software, used and trusted by thousands.
If you own a WordPress-powered website and you currently run events that involve managing dates and venues, enrolling attendees, or reserving seating, then you will probably not find a better WP plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For full details, check out the plugin here: Event Espresso
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