Does your business currently run or plan to run events that require handling bookings or registrations, such as seminars, group classes, not-for-profit fund-raisers, marketing conferences, or even a large-scale event such as a music show, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to register to attend?
Managing event sign-ups can be a complex and time-consuming process. You may be required to manage event schedules, dates, participant numbers, data processing and storage, collecting payments and sending invoices, confirmations and reservations, reminders, refunds and cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and providing tickets to participants.
There are many advantages to setting up an online event registration system. It can streamline your business processes, save time and reduce costs, help you easily duplicate previous 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 costly.
The good news is that if you own a WordPress-based site, you can easily install an inexpensive and highly professional web-based event registration solution.
Introducing …
Event Espresso
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration software enables you to easily create an event and start processing registrations in just a few minutes.
(Set up multiple events and take online bookings with Event Espresso)
Event Espresso is a versatile and feature-packed application that gives you full control over your event registration management process.
Create custom event registration forms
You can use a number of event registration strategies, from simple online enrolments and straight up ticket sales, to setting up custom registration forms in order to better understand your participants, or integrating your event bookings with an autoresponder system for ongoing updates.
View detailed information about event attendees
Important: Currently, Event Espresso provides two different versions of their plugin: Event Espresso 3 and EE 4. The new EE 4 is significantly different than the older Event Espresso 3, as the software is being revamped using a different structure to enable future growth and expansion. The Event Espresso 4 plugin platform 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 the benefits and advantages of this plugin.
To learn more about the plugin go here:
Benefits Of Using Event Espresso
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 current digital presence into a feature-rich and professional event management website … from custom registration forms and automated response emails, to seating limits, multiple pricing levels and discount codes, to printable tickets and even seating charts.
Better Business Productivity
By using a web-based event registration solution like Event Espresso, you save time and increase your business productivity by literally doing away with the need to process registrations manually.
Basically, you are facilitating attendees to enrol on their own.
Letting your enrollees to do all of the data themselves frees up your time and lets you direct more energy on creating a memorable event.
Complete Control Over The User Experience
As you will soon see, Event Espresso gives you more control over the event management process that you want your customers to experience.
Additional benefits of the plugin include the following:
- Lower Costs: The Event Espresso plugin gives you an inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to building your own solution or using a 3rd party provider. This is made possible by using a model where Event Espresso users start with the core plugin (which suits the needs of most users) and then buy add-ons only when you need additional functionality.
- Higher Sales: Event Espresso allows you to accept online signups 24 hrs a day. Not only that, but, Event Espresso social and marketing features and addons (see below) let people who are interested in registering for your event share your information with friends who may also be interested in attending.
- Green And Paperless Event Booking Process: With Event Espresso, your event sign-up 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 data obtained from your event participants.
Features
The Event Espresso software delivers functionality to its users through standard features (these come with the plugin) and additional features that users can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides many features to WP users. Here are just a few:
- Quick and simple to install and set up. Ready to use in no time.
- Custom Event Registration Form. With Event Espresso you can collect unique data using a custom event registration form on your web site to prepare a great experience for your attendees.
- Customizable Event Designs. You can customize your events and registrations page using Event Espresso’s limitless template options and elements, plus HTML or CSS.
- Ticket Selector. Present several ticket options to prospective attendees and let them purchase the ticket(s) that best suits their needs.
- Smart Single Page Checkout. The Event Espresso 4 checkout process is fast and intuitive. Registrants are given the option to automatically copy the primary registrant’s details for any additional registrants.
- Default Price Types. Price types allow event managers to create new prices that adjust the default ticket price for the system-default ticket.
- Promotional Codes. Set up promotional and discount codes to encourage people to take action without hesitation, or make your events more appealing for price-sensitive customers. This is also practical for helping to sell out events close to timelines.
- Manual Registration. you have the option of booking event participants when they show up, or sending in paper forms for manual registration later.
- Admin Pre-approval. Control who can participate in your events.
- Public Commenting. Add “social proof” by allowing potential prospects to interact with you online via commenting and previous attendees to post reviews that can help others consider whether or not to register. Moderation settings for public commenting are configured via the WP native commenting admin area.
- Draft (status) Events. Draft events allow you to develop your event at your own pace without displaying it live on your site. You can work on your event pages until you are ready to publish it live on your site, or schedule to publish your event at a future time and date.
- Your Organization Settings. Configure your organization’s profile to display throughout Event Espresso and your front-end templates. Your organization fields include: company name, address, city, state, country, zip code, primary contact email address, telephone, VAT/tax number, business logo, Facebook profile URL, Twitter URL, LinkedIn URL, Pinterest URL, Google+ URL, Instagram profile URL.
- Import Events. Event Espresso 4 provides an advanced importing feature that enables you to quickly import a lot of event data at once. You can export, edit and upload information about events, datetimes, tickets, pricing, custom registration questions, venue info, terminology, taxonomies, term relationships and more.
- Venue Manager. The venue manager in Event Espresso 4 allows information about venues to be made available throughout the Event Espresso admin and the front end of your site to inform potential registrants of the location of your event. The venue record has many of the standard WP settings such as tags, categories, discussion settings, comments, etc., but also displays information like venue seating capacity, venue web address, phone number, physical, Google map, etc. You can also display venues throughout various sections of your theme as well as on a venue listing page on your site where you can set up and publish venue profiles for multiple events or display every event you have booked for a specific venue.
- Registrant Profiles. Manage your attendee’s profile information and payment history and keep all of their data organized.
- Invoice Payment Reminders. Follow-up potential event customers who have not paid in full for their booking with a standard but personalized PDF invoice with one click of a button. Your invoices will reference registered attendees who have not paid their registration in full by name, give them the balance owing, and include a link to the event information, a payment link 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 even customize the templates to display event information in your own custom way.
Additional features include:
- Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). Event Espresso is simple enough for non-technical users, and also robust and customizable for enterprise-level users and developers. The bottom line is that by using Object-oriented programming (OOP), EE 4 facilitates more complex enhancements and customizations to the application.
- Full Logging & Remote Logging. Event Espresso 4 allows you to generate a log file with debugging data that can be helpful for web developers when diagnosing software errors.
- Flexibility, Autonomy And 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 efficient model that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money in the process.
The premium edition of Event Espresso also provides you with over 40 additional features, including:
- Duplicating events – limits the work of re-entering event information when creating new events.
- Question groups that simplify the process of reusing a series of questions for similar events.
- Category titles and descriptions on event listing pages.
Add-Ons
As mentioned earlier, Event Espresso provides “addons”, which allow plugin users to significantly enhance the capabilities 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 the event does not have a featured image available, it will use a default image.
- Recurring Events Drop-down Custom Template Addon: The Recurring Events Drop-down custom template organizes the events with many datetimes into a dropdown list.
- Events Category Accordion Template Add on: The Category Accordion template shows event categories in a simple list. Clicking the category name shows all events associated with that category and closes any previously open categories.
- Events Social Sharing Add on: This addon adds social sharing features to the end of your Event Espresso “thank you” page that lets your attendees to share a message about their event registration on Twitter and Facebook after booking.
- Custom Template Addon: The Custom Template addon is capable of displaying your event lists in a range of visually exciting ways.
- Seating Chart Add-on: The seating chart add on is great 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 addon allows you to offer reserved or assigned seating to your events and venues from your WordPress website. The Seating Chart add-on lets you manage the experience for your customers and design assigned seating charts and attach single prices to every seat.
- EE4 Event Ticketing And Bar Scanning Add-on: The Ticketing add on gives you the ability to generate tickets with bar codes. The Bar Scanning add-on adds the ability to scan ticket bar codes. The ticketing add-on includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple bar code types are included for managing check-in scans at venues. People 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 attendees and to validate tickets.
- EE4 Events Table View Template Add-on: The Events Table Template add on gives event managers a simple and easy-to-use system that allows you to edit the design of your event lists. It comes with a simple table template with category filters, table search, table paging and more. It also lets developers build their own custom templates using one of the templates provided as a base template.
- MailChimp Integration: The MailChimp add-on lets you auto-register attendees to a specific autoresponder list or group within your MailChimp account.
Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to its plugin, including new addons.
To learn more about the newest Event Espreso features and add-ons, check out the plugin here:
User Feedback
Below are some of the many testimonials that customers 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 searched long and hard to find something that would serve my needs. This is, by far, the most complete and comprehensive solution I have found.” Bill Hepper, We Teach Live
”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
Event Espresso Tips
Whether you are a gym owner, teacher, seminar planner, or event management consultant, there are just unlimited possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso plugin.
After purchasing your copy of the plugin and becoming a licensed user, visit the user forum for tips and practical suggestions to improve your event management and registration process and enhance the experience of your attendees.
Product Support
Event Espresso is fully compatible with other WordPress plugins and themes that follow WP coding standards. If you have problems with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides great customer support, as many of its satisfied customers attest:
”No complaints here. Satisfied customer. You can teach us all few things about customer service. Thanks!” Charles
Event Espresso provides robust support including access to a support forum, comprehensive online documentation with faqs, knowledgebase and how tos, priority 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.
In addition, Event Espresso boasts an established team of experienced web developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely software you can count on to manage your events.
Software Pricing
Event Espresso is available in a range of plugin editions, including a FREE basic edition (called Event Espresso Decaf). For support and advanced plugin functionality, however, you need to consider downloading one of the paid plugin versions below:
- Personal Edition – This allows you to install Event Espresso on 1 site only. Cost includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Cost = $69.95.
- Everything License – This lets you set up Event Espresso on 1 domain only. Includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium addons and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $279.95.
- Developer Edition – This option enables you to configure Event Espresso on five sites. Price includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Cost = $249.95.
Current pricing for the Event Espresso plugin can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the software retails for the prices shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Espresso
Please Note: The above reflects the pricing at the time this article was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin author when you visit the website.
Additional Plugin Info
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.
Search the plugin’s online documentation pages for answers to common questions about setting up and using Event Espresso, and the support forums if you have questions related to your specific use-case, or to notify developers about problems and give feedback.
For all installation and support documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso product web site.
We Recommend
Event Espresso is the leading WP event booking and ticketing management plugin, used and trusted by thousands of WordPress website owners.
If you are a WordPress site owner and you currently run events that involve managing dates, times and venues (offline and online), enrolling participants, or selling tickets, then you will probably not find a more suitable software for your needs than Event Espresso.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: Event Espresso – WordPress Event Registration And Ticket Manager System
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