Does your company currently run or plan to run events that require handling bookings, such as workshops, community classes, not-for-profit fund raisers, marketing functions, or even a big event like a school concert, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to book to attend?
Managing event sign-ups can be a time-consuming process. You may need to manage scheduling, date availability, participant numbers, data collection and storage, payments and sending invoices, confirmations and reservations, reminders, cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and issuing tickets to attendees.
There are a number of advantages to setting up an automated web-based event registration system. It can make your business more efficient, save time and reduce expenses, help you easily duplicate similar events, give you more control, create a more enjoyable client experience and increase your sales.
The problem is that this can be costly.
Fortunately, if you own a WordPress-powered digital presence, you can easily set up an inexpensive and highly professional online event booking system.
Announcing …
Event Espresso
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin for WP allows you to easily create an event and start accepting online registrations in minutes.
(Set up multiple events and process online event 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 a range of event registration strategies, from simple online registration and straight up selling tickets, to setting up custom registration forms in order to better understand your attendees, or integrating your event registration forms with social media sites like Facebook.
View detailed information about your event attendees
Important: Currently, Event Espresso supports two different versions of their software: EE 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new EE 4 is fundamentally different than the older Event Espresso 3, as it is being revamped using a different structure to enable future growth. The Event Espresso 4 plugin software has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and price. The developers aim to eventually phase out EE 3, so keep this in mind as you learn more about the benefits and advantages 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 website:
Automated Event Registration Management
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your existing website into an automated and feature-rich event management site … from custom registration forms and automated response emails, to seating limits, multiple price options and discount codes, to printable tickets and seating charts.
Increased Business Productivity
By using an online event registration solution like Event Espresso, you save time and increase your business productivity by virtually eliminating the need to process registrations and signups manually.
Basically, you are facilitating event attendees to register themselves.
Allowing your clients to do the data themselves frees you up from doing admin work and lets you spend more resources on creating a better event.
Complete Control Over The User Experience
As you will soon discover, Event Espresso gives you complete control over the event management process that you want your attendees to experience.
Some additional benefits include:
- Less Costs: Event Espresso is a very low cost online event registration management solution compared to other options or using a third-party service. This is made possible by using a model where Event Espresso users pay for the core plugin (which suits the requirements of most users) and then buy optional add-ons only if you need additional functionality.
- More Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept online event signups 24/7. Not only that, but, Event Espresso social features and add-ons (see below) let people who are interested in attending your event invite other people they know who may also be interested.
- Green And Paperless Event SignUp Process: With Event Espresso, the event signup process can be kept entirely online, reducing traditional paper waste from tasks related to administration.
- Own Your Data. You own all the information collected from your event attendees.
Plugin Features
The Event Espresso software delivers functionality to its customers via built-in features (these come with the software) and optional features that users can buy for an added cost, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides many built-in to web site owners. Here are just a few:
- Quick and easy to install and set up. Be up and running in no time.
- Customized Event Registration. Event Espresso lets you collect unique data using custom event registration forms on your web site to prepare a unique experience for your customers.
- Customized Notification Email Message. Easily configure customized automated registration and payment confirmation emails to communicate with your customers.
- Tax Admin & Reporting Options. Event Espresso 4 gives you several options to manage taxes for your event and provide reports of tax fees to customers who purchase tickets. Event managers can administer taxes globally or on a ticket-by-ticket basis.
- Google Maps. Google Maps integration allows you to customize the settings of Google Maps on the event listing and event details pages.
- Spam Protection. Prevent the likelihood of spammers and robots making bogus registrations on your website with reCAPTCHA features to confirm human activity.
- Mobile Registration And Ticketing Apps. The Event Espresso mobile registration system lets you validate tickets, speed up in-venue registrations, create various check-in “stations” and track attendees.
- Contact Profiles & Contact List. EE 4 provides you with the tools to know who your customers are and how they have done business with you.
- Ticketless Events. Promote events without making it necessary for participants to book tickets. Event Espresso can be used for any form of event, not just when tickets are needed.
- Public Commenting. Add social engagement to your events by encouraging potential attendees to interact with you online via commenting and previous customers to post reviews that can help others choose whether or not to register. Moderation settings for comments are set in the WordPress built-in commenting settings.
- Draft (status) Events. Draft events allow you to develop your event over multiple work sessions without publishing it to your website. You can keep working on your event pages until you are ready to go live, or schedule to publish your event at a later time and date.
- Country Settings. You can configure the country and currency settings that will be used throughout Event Espresso, including currency, currency signs, decimal characters and places, country codes, states or provinces, etc.
- Default Tickets. If you find yourself creating similar tickets for your events, you can automatically set one of those tickets as your default ticket for your new events simply by checking a box.
- Event Venue Profiles. The venue management feature in Event Espresso 4 lets details about a venue to be published throughout the Event Espresso admin and the front end of your website to inform visitors of the location of your event. The venue record displays many standard WP settings such as tags, categories, discussion settings, comments, etc., but also lets you add details like venue capacity, venue web address, venue phone number, venue address, map, etc. You can also display venue profiles throughout specific locations in your WordPress theme as well as on a venue archive page on your website where you can set up and reuse venue profiles for multiple events or display every event you have listed for a given venue.
- One-Click Software Installation Updating. Event Espresso provides easy 1-click upgrades to ensure that you have the newest features and to keep your installation up-to-date with the latest version of WordPress.
- Staff Member Manager. Save time and keep your information organized by reusing team member profiles for multiple events or displaying profile information such as team member’s contact information, resume and photo using a shortcode in your event description.
- Categorize Events. If you have several different event types such as free and paid, workshops and breakout sessions, different types of courses, etc. you can categorize them to make it easier for your registrants to find what they’re looking for. You can list all events in a category on an event category page, make the events searchable by category, and colour-code events on the Event Espresso events calendar to make these easier to find, in addition to suggesting new events in the categories that interest your existing customers.
Extra features include:
- Object-Oriented Programming. Event Espresso is simple enough for non-technical WP users, and also robust and customizable for enterprise-level users and developers. The bottom line is that by using OOP, Event Espresso 4 makes possible more complex enhancements and customizations to the plugin.
- Maintenance Mode. You can pause registration capabilities for regular website traffic whenever you need to make changes on your site. You can continue to work on your event pages during maintenance mode.
- 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 and highly effective model that provides users with great autonomy and flexibility and delivers value for money as a result.
The premium edition of Event Espresso also provides you with 40+ additional features, including:
- Live-filtering when searching for events inside the Event Espresso admin.
- Default surcharge (similar to applying a service tax to all tickets).
- Default payment status.
Add-Ons
As well as an incredible array of features, Event Espresso provides “add ons”, which allow you to further enhance the functionality of managing an event.
Some of these addons include:
- Events Vector Maps Template Add-on: The Vector Maps custom events list template lets you display scheduled events by location. There are 4 maps available: USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
- Recurring Events Drop-down Custom Template Add on: The Recurring Events Drop-down custom template organizes events with multiple datetimes into a dropdown list.
- Events Date Range Template Addon: The Date Range custom event list template lets your users to browse for events that occur in a certain date range.
- EE4 Events Social Sharing Add on: This add on adds social sharing features to the end of your Event Espresso “thank you” page that lets your registrants to share a message about their event registration on Twitter and Facebook after booking.
- Custom Files Add-on: The Custom Files add-on provides PHP files that allow you to bypass certain aspects of the Event Espresso plugin.
- Roles And Permissions Basic & Pro Add-on Versions: This add on lets you involve 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 WP users roles and allow them different permissions with different capabilities, allowing staff to help you manage your events or the events that others create. You can customize roles so that a user does not have access to certain parts of your WP dashboard and/or certain areas of your Event Espresso settings. If you’d like to allow users to have geographic responsibilities for events and users, use the Roles and Permissions Pro add-on.
- Multi-Event Registration Add on: The Multi-Event registration add-on gives your 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 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.
- Events Calendar Addon: This addon uses the WordPress calendar to display events and event categories in an attractive graphical calendar.
- Infusionsoft Integration Add on: With the Event Espresso 4 Infusionsoft integration all-in-one sales and business marketing software add-on, you can easily automate your customer relations and email marketing campaigns to seamlessly capture customer data, track registrations, and accept payments from your website.
Note: The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to the plugin, including new add-ons.
For full details about the newest Event Espreso features and add ons, visit the plugin website:
Users – Testimonials
Below are some of the many great testimonials that users have written about Event Espresso:
”Congratulations on an absolutely fantastic plugin. I’m really impressed with its functionality and add on features and will definitely upgrade my client’s production site to the premium version (when ready for launch) to incorporate all the features. As I have told another client “this plugin is the cat’s meow”.” Pete Mansel
”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 promoter, or event consultant, there are simply countless possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso plugin.
After purchasing your copy of the plugin and becoming a registered user, visit the forums for new ideas and practical suggestions to improve your event management and registration workflow or enhance the experience of your event participants.
Plugin Support
Event Espresso is fully compatible with other WP plugins and themes that follow standard WordPress coding guidelines. If you experience issues with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides excellent support, as many of its customers attest:
”These guys are right on any problem or issue or even general questions. You can’t really put a value high enough on the kind of support these guys offer.” Mark Wigston, Muskoka Graphics
The Event Espresso software provides exceptional support including access to support forums, 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.
In addition, Event Espresso boasts an established team of experienced web developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely a solution you can count on to organize and manage your events.
Plugin Pricing
Event Espresso is available in various editions, including a FREE basic edition (named Event Espresso Decaf). For support and advanced plugin features, however, you will want to consider using one of the paid plugin versions below:
- Personal License – This option lets you run Event Espresso on 1 site only. Includes 51+ Premium features, (addons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything Licensing – This enables you to install Event Espresso on one domain only. Includes 51+ Premium features, 29 Premium add ons and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $279.95.
- Developer License – This option enables you to install Event Espresso on five sites. Cost includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons 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 pricing above was current at the time this review was written. This may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the website.
Event Espresso – Additional Information
The Event Espresso development team is continually adding new features and improvements to its plugin. Make sure to stay subscribed to their customer update list to receive the latest information and updates.
Use the plugin’s online documentation pages to find answers to common questions about setting up and how to use Event Espresso, and visit the support forums for questions related to a specific situation, or to notify developers about bugs and leave feedback.
For all installation and support documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso web site.
We Recommend
Event Espresso is the preferred WordPress event booking and ticketing manager software, used by thousands of WordPress site owners.
If you own a WordPress-powered site and you plan to run events that involve scheduling dates and venues, registering participants, or booking seating, then you will probably not find a better plugin for your needs than Event Espresso.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Event Espresso – Event Management & Ticket Registration Plugin For WordPress
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