Do you currently run or plan to run events that require co-ordinating registrations, such as seminars, training classes, charity fund-raisers, social functions, or even a big event such as a show, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to book to attend or participate?
Co-ordinating event sign-ups is a complex process. You need to manage event schedules, available dates and seating allocations, registration numbers, data processing, payments and invoicing, confirmations, reminders, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and issuing tickets to event attendees.
There are lots of advantages to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can streamline your business processes, save time and reduce expenses, help you easily duplicate repeat events, give you more control, create a better user experience and grow your sales.
The problem is that setting up a web-based event registration system can be very costly.
Fortunately, if you own a WordPress-based web site, you can install an inexpensive and professional web-based event registration solution.
Announcing …
Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticketing Manager
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin lets you easily set up multiple events and begin processing online registrations in minutes.
(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and receive online event registrations)
Event Espresso is a versatile and feature-packed software that gives you full control of your event registration management process.
Create custom event registration forms
You can use multiple event registration strategies, from simple online enrollments and straight up ticket sales, to creating custom registration forms for collecting detailed information about your event attendees, or integrating your event bookings with an autoresponder system for ongoing updates.
View detailed information about event attendees
Important: Currently, Event Espresso is transitioning between two different versions of their software: EE 3 and EE 4. The new EE 4 is significantly different than the older EE 3, as the plugin is being redeveloped using a different structure to accommodate future growth and expansion. The EE 4 plugin platform has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and pricing. The developers aim to eventually transition completely to Event Espresso 4, so keep this in mind as you read more about the benefits and features of using the plugin.
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using Event Espresso
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using Event Espresso to manage event registrations on your web site:
Automated Event Registration Management
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your current web site into a feature-rich and professional event management website … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to maximum seating limits, multiple pricing options and discount codes, to printable tickets and seating charts.
Higher Business Productivity
By using an online event registration solution like Event Espresso, you save time and improve your business productivity by virtually eliminating the chore of processing registrations and signups manually.
Essentially, you are making it easier for participants to register themselves.
Allowing your participants to do the data entry frees up your time and lets you concentrate more of your energy on planning a more unique event.
Full Control Over The User Experience
As you will soon discover, Event Espresso gives you full control over the event management and booking process that you want your attendees to experience.
Additional benefits include:
- Lower Costs: Event Espresso is a very low cost online event registration management solution compared to other options or using a 3rd party provider. The cost is kept to a minimum by using a model where Event Espresso users pay for the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and then purchase addons when you need extra functionality.
- More Sales: Event Espresso lets you accept online registrations 24/7. In addition, Event Espresso social sharing features (see below) let people who are interested in registering for your event share your information with others who may also be interested.
- Green Event Sign Up Process: With Event Espresso, the event sign up process can remain entirely online, eliminating traditional paper consumption from tasks related to admin and record-keeping.
- Own Your Information. You control all the data you acquire from event participants.
Features
The Event Espresso plugin provides functionality to end-users through built-in features (these come with the software) and optional features that customers can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso offers a number of built-in to WP users. Here are just a few:
- Fast and simple to install and implement. Be up and running in minutes.
- Multiple Ticket And Pricing Options. Event Espresso lets you create multiple ticket types and set prices, maximum number of tickets, and more.
- Customizable Event Designs. Create a unique look and feel for your events and registrations page using Event Espresso’s template options and elements, and HTML or CSS.
- Ticket Selector. Present multiple ticket options to prospects so they can purchase the ticket(s) that will best fit their needs.
- Google Maps. Google Maps integration enables you to customize the settings of Google Maps on the event listing and event details sections.
- Default Prices. Set up events quickly and easily with pre-configured default ticket pricing.
- In-App Documentation. Event Espresso 4 provides 3 detailed in-app documentation systems: Help Tours, Help Tabs and Tool Tips.
- Manual Registration. you have the option of registering event attendees at the door, or sending in paper-based forms for manual processing later.
- No-Ticket Events. You can promote events without the requirement for registrants to select tickets. Use Event Espresso for all forms of events, not just those that require tickets.
- RSS Event Feeds. Provide automatic updates to your site readers, bring in more visitors and widen your content reach with the built-in XML RSS events feed.
- Draft (status) Events. Draft events let you develop your event over time without displaying it live on your website. You can continue developing your event pages until you are ready to take it live, or schedule to publish your event page at a later date and time.
- Easy Event Management. Event Espresso puts event managers in complete control of every aspect of your event’s registration and ticketing processes, and lets you automate this process with event management tools that include staff and venue manager, customizable event page designs, payment processing, wait lists, limits on attendees, printable tickets and more.
- Import Event Data. EE 4 provides an advanced importing capability that allows you to quickly import bulk event data at once. You can export, edit and upload details about events, datetimes, tickets, pricing, custom registration questions, venue info, terminology, taxonomies, term relationships and more.
- Venue Profiles. The venue manager in Event Espresso 4 allows information about a venue to be published throughout the Event Espresso admin and the public areas of your site to inform attendees of the location of your event. The venue profile has many of the standard WP settings such as tags, categories, discussion settings, comments, etc., but also includes venue details such as venue seating capacity, venue website, phone number, venue location details, maps, etc. You can also display venues throughout specific sections on your theme as well as on a venue listing page on your site where you can set up and reuse venue profiles for multiple events or display all the events for a particular venue.
- Registrant Records. You can manage each customer’s profiles and payment history and keep all of their records organized.
- Social Sharing. Event registrants and your website visitors can help increase exposure for your events using social media sharing buttons.
- Event Reports. Quick-view event reports provides you with information of all registrations and transactions, allowing you to track the performance of your events with the aggregate number of people who have registered and amount of revenue you have collected.
Extra features include:
- Define Extra Meta Information. This allows web-based software developers to have more control and options over the content of your event pages and how your information displays to your site visitors.
- Metabox Management & Reorganization. Event Espresso lets you leverage the WP user interface, which gives you the ability to organize the user interface to match your workflow. Each control box can be collapsed, re-arranged or completely deleted from the workflow configuration.
- Autonomy, Flexibility & 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 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:
- Duplicating events – limits the work of re-entering event details when adding new events.
- Default surcharge (similar to adding a service tax to tickets).
- Category titles and descriptions on event listings.
Add-Ons
In addition to a very large number of features, Event Espresso provides “add ons”, which allow users to further expand the functionality of managing your event.
Some of these add ons include:
- EE4 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 the event does not have a featured image, it will use a default image.
- Recurring Events Drop-down Custom Template Add on: The Recurring Events Drop-down custom template lets you organize the events with multiple datetimes into a dropdown list.
- 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 show the event thumbnail instead of the date.
- Social Coupons Integration Add-on: If your site is featured on Groupon.com you can easily accept Groupon codes to your events. You can even specify whether events accept the social coupons or not.
- Custom Template Add on: The Custom Template add-on lets you display your event lists in a range of visually exciting ways.
- Roles And Permissions Basic & Pro Add on Editions: This add on lets you include other users in the event management process and give new users permission to create events or regional managers permission to manage events. The Roles and Permissions Basic add-on allows you to manage & customize the WordPress users roles and assign them different permissions with different capabilities, allowing staff to help you manage your events or the events that other people create. You can customize roles so that users do not have access to certain parts of your WP dashboard and/or certain parts of your Event Espresso settings. If you’d like to create geographic regions for other people to manage events, use the Roles and Permissions Pro add-on.
- Multiple Event Registration Add-on: The Multi-Event registration add-on gives potential attendees the ability to register for multiple events at once. In each event listing attendees will be given the option to either register for a single event or add multiple events to their cart. With the Multiple Event Registration addon, 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 Add on: This add-on uses the WP calendar to display events and categories of events via an attractive graphical calendar.
- Infusionsoft Integration Add on: With the Event Espresso 4 Infusionsoft integration all-in-one sales and marketing software add-on, you can completely automate your customer relations and email marketing campaigns to seamlessly capture customer data, track enrollments, and accept payments from your website.
Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to its plugin, including new addons.
For full details about the latest Event Espreso features and add-ons, visit the plugin website:
User Feedback
Below are some of the many great testimonials that satisfied users have written about Event Espresso:
”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
”I have been using Event Espresso to run my festival and have been very happy with how it has worked out. They have provided tremendous support and their iPhone app is amazing and easy to use. I suggest using it for your event.” Alex Grant, Byron Spirit Festival
”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, presenter, show promoter, or event professional, there are simply countless possibilities of what you can do with the Event Espresso plugin.
After purchasing the plugin and becoming a registered user, visit the user forum for useful ideas and practical suggestions to streamline your event management process or enhance the experience of your event customers.
Event Espresso Support
Event Espresso works with with most WP plugins and WP themes that follow WordPress coding standards. If you find that you need support with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides highly responsive end-user support, as so many of its users confirm:
”Your plugin saved our client nearly $9000 in development costs because it handled the majority of the functionality we were looking for at a much lower cost. EventEspresso’s staff have been very responsive to our needs when we have them (which has been rare, because the plugin is so well coded). Great job on a great plugin!” Brandon P., Experience Farm
The plugin provides robust support with access to a support forum, comprehensive online documentation with faqs, knowledgebase and how tos, premium support and even a monthly VIP member pass that gives 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 organize and manage your events.
Software Price
Event Espresso is available in a number of plugin editions, including a FREE basic edition (named Event Espresso Decaf). For support and advanced software functionality, however, you should consider downloading one of the ”Pro” plugin editions below:
- Personal License – This lets you run Event Espresso on 1 site only. It includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything Licensing – This license lets you run Event Espresso on 1 domain only. Price includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add ons and 1 year of upgrades and support. Cost = $279.95.
- Developer Licensing – This lets you run Event Espresso on 5 domains. It includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $249.95.
Pricing for the Event Espresso plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the software is selling for the pricing shown above. Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Registration & Ticketing Management
Note: The pricing above was current at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual price charged by the plugin author when you visit the site.
Event Espresso – Additional Information
The Event Espresso development team is continually adding 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.
Search the software’s online documentation pages for answers to common questions about setup and how to use Event Espresso, and the support forums if you have questions related to a particular situation, or to notify developers about issues and give feedback.
For all documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso website.
The Bottom Line
Event Espresso is the preferred WP event booking and ticketing manager plugin, used and trusted by thousands of people.
If you are a WordPress user and you intend to run an event that involves managing dates and venues (offline and online), registering participants, or selling seating, then you will probably not find a more suitable WordPress plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Event Espresso
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