Do you currently run or plan to run events that require handling bookings, such as seminars, group classes, charity fund raisers, social conferences, or even a big event like a music show, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to register to attend?
Co-ordinating event bookings is a complex process. You may be required to manage calendar schedules, available dates and spaces, registration numbers, data processing, payments and sending invoices, confirmations, reminders and alerts, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and delivering tickets to event participants.
There are many benefits to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can streamline your business processes, save time and lower expenses, help you easily replicate repeat events, give you more control, create a more enjoyable user experience and grow your sales.
The problem is that setting this up can be quite costly.
Fortunately, if you own a WordPress-powered site, you can easily install an inexpensive and highly professional web-based event booking system.
Introducing …
Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticketing Manager
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin for WP enables you to easily schedule an event and begin processing online bookings in just a few minutes.
(Set up multiple events and accept online bookings with Event Espresso)
Event Espresso is a feature-packed application that gives you full control over the event registration management process.
Create custom event registration forms
You can use multiple event registration strategies, from simple online registration and straight up ticket-selling, to setting up custom registration forms for collecting detailed information about your event participants, or integrating your event registration forms with an autoresponder system for ongoing updates.
Access detailed information about event attendees
Important: Currently, Event Espresso is transitioning between 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 it 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 price. 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 using the plugin.
More info:
Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your website:
Hands-Free Event Registration Management And Ticketing Solution
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your current website or blog into a fully-featured and automated event management site … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to attendee limits, multiple price levels and discount codes, to printable tickets and seating charts.
Better Business Productivity
By using a web-based event registration solution like Event Espresso, you save time and improve your business productivity by practically eliminating the chore of processing registrations and sign-ups manually.
Basically, you are making it easier for participants to register on their own.
Allowing your enrollees to do all of the data themselves frees up your time and lets you focus more resources on creating a more enjoyable event.
More Control Over The User Experience
As you will soon learn, Event Espresso gives you more control over the event management and registration process that you want your clients to experience.
Some additional benefits and advantages include:
- Less Costs: Event Espresso gives you a very low cost online event registration management solution compared to building your own system or using a third party service provider. The cost is kept low by using a model where users pay for the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and purchase add-ons only when you need additional functionality.
- Higher Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept online bookings any time of day or night. Not only that, but, Event Espresso social and marketing addons (see below) let people interested in registering for your event invite others who may also be interested.
- Green & Paperless Event Registration Process: With Event Espresso, your event sign up process can remain entirely in digital form, reducing typical paper waste from tasks associated with enrollment.
- All Data Belongs To You. You control all the information gathered from event participants.
Plugin Features
Event Espresso delivers functionality to its customers through built-in features (these are included with the plugin) and optional features that customers can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides many great built-in to website owners. Here are just a few:
- Quick and simple to install and use. Ready to start accepting registrations in no time.
- Multiple Ticket And Pricing Options. Event Espresso allows you to configure as many types of tickets as you need and set separate pricing options, limits on ticket quantities, etc.
- Customizable Event Designs. Customize your events and registrations page using Event Espresso’s limitless template options and components, plus HTML or CSS.
- Ticket Selector. Present several ticket options to registrants so they can purchase the ticket(s) that best suits their needs.
- Custom Post Types. Integrate Event Espresso into your theme and display contact data throughout other areas of your site.
- Default Price Types. Price types let event managers create new prices that adjust the base ticket pricing for the default ticket.
- In-App Documentation Systems. Event Espresso 4 comes with three detailed in-app documentation systems: Help Tours, Help Tabs and Tool Tips.
- Manual Registration. you have the option of booking event attendees when they show up, or sending in paper forms for manual registration later.
- Admin Pre-approval. Be selective about who can register for your events.
- RSS Feeds. Keep your users up-to-date about your events, bring in more visitors and reach a wider number of potential customers with the built-in XML RSS events feed.
- Keyword Rich Event Page URLs. Keyword-rich URLs take advantage of your Permalinks configuration settings. Search engine friendly permalinks with relevant keywords enhance the context of your events and improves your search rankings, helping you bring a more targeted audience to your site.
- Your Organization Settings. Configure your profile to display throughout Event Espresso and your front-end templates. Your organization data include: company name, address, city, state, country, zip/postal code, primary contact email address, phone, tax number, logo, Facebook URL, Twitter profile URL, LinkedIn URL, Pinterest URL, Google+ URL, Instagram profile URL.
- Default Tickets. If you create similar tickets for many of your events, you can easily set up as your default ticket for all new events simply by ticking a checkbox.
- Event Venue Profiles. The venue manager in Event Espresso 4 allows details about a venue to display throughout the Event Espresso admin and the front end of your site to inform potential attendees of your event’s location. The venue profile has many standard WP settings such as tags, categories, discussion settings, comments, etc., but also lets you add venue information such as venue capacity, venue site URL, phone number, venue location details, Google map, etc. You can also display all of your event venues on various parts of your WordPress theme and on a venue archive page on your site where you can set up and display venue profiles for multiple events or display every event you have booked for a particular venue.
- Event Espresso Community. Event Espresso provides users with access to a community of experienced event managers, web developers, designers, marketers and businesses who also use the software. You can network with other members of the Event Espresso community via their community chat room, support forums, job board, and social media pages on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Google+.
- Invoice Payment Reminders. Follow-up potential participants who have not made payment for their enrollment with a standard but personalized PDF invoice with just one click of a button. Your invoices will reference registered attendees who have not paid their registration in full by name, display the amount owing, and include a link to the event, a payment url and a url 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 event information in your own unique way.
Extra features include:
- Hooks, Actions And Filters. These allow you to implement safer and more reliable customizations and extensions to the Event Espresso plugin that are completely compatible with WordPress.
- Full Logging, Remote Logging. Event Espresso 4 allows you to create a log file with debugging data which can be helpful for developers when diagnosing problems.
- Flexibility, Autonomy And Value: According to the mission statement on their website, Event Espresso’s aim 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 company operates on a model that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money as a result.
The premium version of Event Espresso also provides you with over 40 added features, including:
- Email shortcodes for including attendee data in notification emails and updates.
- Default surcharge (the same as applying a service tax to all tickets).
- Category titles and descriptions on event listing pages.
Add-Ons
As mentioned earlier, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow you to significantly expand the capabilities of managing an event.
Some of these add ons include:
- Events Grid Template Addon: 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, it will use a default image.
- Recurring Events Management Add-on: The Recurring Events management add-on lets you put your events on autopilot by scheduling recurring events weeks or months in advance. You can create as many future events as you need. Event Espresso will automatically open and close registrations for all recurring events.
- Events Category Accordion Template Add-on: The Category Accordion template displays categories in a simple list. Clicking a category name shows all events associated with that category and closes any previously open categories.
- Social Media Buttons Add on: The social media addon displays Facebook, Twitter and Google+ buttons in your events. The Social Media addon is included free with all of the Event Espresso support licenses.
- 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 pricing when members are logged in. You can even set up member-only events where only registered users of the site will have access to these special events. Members can also store personal data into their profile page allowing them to quickly register for events by auto-filling in the personal information on the event booking form. Your users can also view event history and pay for events.
- Seating Chart Add-on: The seating chart addon is suitable 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 allows you to offer reserved or assigned seating to your events and venues right 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.
- Multiple Event Registration Add-on: The Multiple Event registration add-on gives potential customers the ability to register for multiple events at once. In each event listing registrants will be given the option to either register for a single event or add multiple events to their cart. With the Multi-Event Registration add-on, attendees can register for several events at once and even add additional attendees to any of the same events in the same checkout process.
- EE4 Events Calendar Addon: This add on uses the WordPress calendar to display events and event categories in an attractive graphical calendar.
- MailChimp Integration Addon: The MailChimp add-on lets you auto-register participants to a chosen mailing autoresponder list or group within MailChimp.
Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to the software, including new add ons.
To learn more about the latest Event Espreso features and addons, visit the plugin website:
Customers – Feedback
Below are some of the testimonials that satisfied users have written about Event Espresso:
”Event Espresso is so easy to use yet feature rich and stable. It is a cornerstone of our site and our success.” Fraser Barner, Speaker’s Lab
“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
Event Espresso Tips
Whether you are a gym owner, presenter, festival planner, or event consultant, there are simply endless possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso software.
After downloading your copy of the plugin and becoming a registered owner, visit the user forum for inspiration and practical suggestions to streamline your event management and registration workflow or enhance the experience of your event customers.
Support
Event Espresso works with with most WordPress plugins and themes that follow WordPress coding standards. If you experience issues with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides great end-user support, as many of its satisfied customers 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 that includes access to support forums, comprehensive online documentation with faqs, knowledge base 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 an established team of experienced WordPress developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely software you can rely on to run your events.
Event Espresso Cost
Event Espresso is available in various plugin editions, including a FREE basic edition (called Event Espresso Decaf). For personal support and advanced plugin features, however, you may want to consider using one of the paid plugin versions below:
- Personal Licensing – This license option allows you to set up Event Espresso on one domain only. Includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Cost = $69.95.
- Everything License Edition – This edition lets you run Event Espresso on 1 domain only. Includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium addons and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $279.95.
- Developer License Edition – This lets you configure Event Espresso on five domains. Cost includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $249.95.
Current pricing for the Event Espresso plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. When we last checked, the plugin is selling for the prices shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Manager And Ticket Registration Software For WordPress
Please Note: The above reflects the pricing when this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the site.
Event Espresso – Additional Information
The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to the software. Make sure to register for their newsletter when you visit their site to receive the latest information and updates.
Search the plugin’s online documentation tools to find answers to common questions about setting up and using Event Espresso, and the support forums if you have questions related to a particular situation, or to notify developers about errors and leave feedback.
For all documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso web site.
Our Recommendation
Event Espresso is the preferred WordPress event registration and ticketing management software, used by thousands of WP site owners.
If you are a WordPress site owner and you currently run events that involve scheduling dates and venues, enrolling attendees, and/or reserving seating, then you will probably not find a better solution for your needs than Event Espresso.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Event Espresso – WordPress Event Manager & Ticket Registration Plugin
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