Does your organization currently run or plan to run events that require co-ordinating registrations, such as workshops, group classes, not-for-profit fund raisers, marketing events, or even a big event like a trade exhibit, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to register to attend?
Co-ordinating event bookings is a time-consuming process. You need to manage scheduling, available dates and seating allocations, attendee numbers, data processing and storage, collecting payments and invoicing, confirmations, reminders, cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special needs and delivering tickets to event attendees.
There are a number of benefits to setting up a web-based event registration system. It can make your business more efficient, save time and reduce costs, help you easily reproduce repeat events, give you more control, improve customer experience and increase your sales.
The problem is that setting up an online event booking system can be expensive.
The good news is that if you own a WordPress-based website or blog, you can easily set up an inexpensive and highly professional web-based event registration solution.
Introducing …
Event Espresso
Plugin Description
The Event Espresso online event registration plugin lets you easily schedule an event and begin accepting online registrations literally in minutes.
(Set up multiple events and process online event bookings with Event Espresso)
Event Espresso is a flexible and feature-rich application that gives you full control of the event registration management process.
Create custom event registration forms
You can employ various event registration strategies, from simple online bookings and straight up selling tickets, to creating custom registration forms for collecting detailed information about your attendees, or integrating your event bookings with social media sites like Facebook.
Access detailed information about your event attendees
Note: At the time of writing this review, Event Espresso provides two different versions of their plugin: Event Espresso 3 and Event Espresso 4. The new Event Espresso 4 is completely different than the older EE 3, as the platform has been revamped using a different structure to accommodate future growth and expansion. The EE 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 read more about this plugin.
For more details, visit the plugin site 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:
Automated Event Registration Management And Ticketing Solution
Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your existing digital presence into an automated and feature-rich event management site … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to seating limits, multiple pricing levels 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 improve your business productivity by literally doing away with the chore of processing registrations and signups manually.
Essentially, you are facilitating event attendees to enroll by themselves.
Letting your customers to do all of the data entry frees up your time and lets you spend more time on planning a more unique event.
Full Control Over The User Experience
As you will learn shortly, Event Espresso gives you full control over the event management process that you want your attendees to experience.
Additional benefits include:
- Less Costs: Event Espresso gives you an inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to other options or using a 3rd-party service. This is made possible through a model where users start with the core plugin (which suits the needs of most users) and then purchase add ons only when you need additional features.
- More Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept new event signups 24/7. In addition, Event Espresso social sharing and marketing features (see below) let people interested in attending your event share your information with others who may also be interested.
- Green & Paperless Event SignUp Process: With Event Espresso, your event sign-up process can be kept entirely in digital form, significantly reducing traditional paper waste from tasks associated with enrollment.
- Own Your Data. You control all the information you obtain from your event participants.
Event Espresso Features
Event Espresso provides functionality to end-users via built-in features (these are included with the software) and additional features that customers can purchase, called add-ons.
Event Espresso provides a number of great features to WP users. Here are just some:
- Fast and simple to install and use. Be up and running in minutes.
- Multiple Dates and Times Per Event. In Event Espresso 4, events can have many dates and times (called datetimes), and these can be managed from a single event.
- Customized Confirmation Email Message. Easily set up custom automatic booking and payment confirmation email messages to communicate with your attendees.
- Ticket Selector. Present multiple ticket options to prospective registrants and let them choose the ticket(s) that will best fit their needs.
- Google Maps. Google Maps integration enables event managers to configure the look and control settings of Google Maps on your event listing and event details sections.
- Spam Protection. Eliminate the likelihood of spamming and bot software programs creating fake registrations on your website with reCAPTCHA tools to confirm human activity.
- In-App Documentation. Event Espresso 4 comes with 3 built-in in-app documentation systems: Help Tours, Help Tabs and Tool Tips.
- Manual Registration Option. you have the option of registering event participants when they show up, or sending in paper forms for manual registration later.
- Ticketless Events. You can list events without requiring attendees to get tickets. Use Event Espresso for all forms of events, not just those that require tickets.
- Event RSS Feeds. Provide automatic updates to your users, drive quality traffic and reach a wider audience with the built-in XML RSS events feed.
- Works With The Most Recent Version Of WordPress. The Event Espresso 4 user interface follows all WordPress guidelines to help you create aesthetically beautiful event pages that are responsive and mobile-friendly.
- Your Organization Settings. you can configure your organization’s profile to be deployed throughout the software and your WP themes. Organization data include: company name, street address, city, state, country, zip/postal code, email, telephone, tax number, company logo, Facebook profile URL, Twitter URL, LinkedIn profile URL, Pinterest profile URL, Google+ URL, Instagram profile URL.
- Default Tickets. If you find yourself creating similar tickets for most of your events, you can set up as your default ticket for any new events simply by checking a box.
- Register Multiple Attendees. EE 4 allows an individual or people to book multiple participants at the same time. You control how many people are able to register in one registration by specifying either limits on ticket purchases per order, or per-ticket minimums and maximums.
- Attendee Records. Manage each registrant’s profile information and payment history and keep all of their records organized.
- Invoice Payment Reminders. Follow-up potential registrants who have not fully paid for their enrollment with a standard but personalized PDF invoice with one click. Your invoices will address registered customers who have not paid their registration yet by name, display the balance owing, and include a link to the event, a payment url and a url to download the invoice.
- Categorize Events. If you have several different types of events such as free and paid, conference speakers and breakout sessions, different kinds of programs and program modules, etc. you can categorize them to make it easier for event attendees to find what they’re searching for. You can display all events in a category on an event category page, make events searchable by category, and colour-code events on the Event Espresso events calendar to make them easier to find, in addition to suggesting other events in the categories that appeal to your visitors.
Extra features include:
- Object-Oriented Programming. Event Espresso is simple enough for non-technical users, and also extremely robust and customizable for higher end users and developers. The bottom line is that by using Object-oriented programming (OOP), Event Espresso 4 enables more complex enhancements and customizations to the plugin.
- Maintenance Mode. You can pause registrations for normal website visitors whenever website maintenance is required. You can continue to work on the back-end of your site 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 objectives, the company operates on a modular and 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 comes with 40+ additional features, including:
- Duplicating events – simplifies the work of re-entering event data when adding new events.
- Question groups that make it easy to reuse the same group of questions for similar events.
- Option to skip the confirmation page in registration.
Event Espresso Add-Ons
In addition to an incredible number of features, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow customers to further enhance 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 instead.
- Recurring Events Management Add on: The Recurring Events manager add-on lets you put your events on autopilot by scheduling recurring events weeks or months ahead. You can schedule as many future events as you want. Event Espresso will automatically open and close bookings for all of your 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 the event thumbnail instead of the date.
- Social Media Buttons Addon: The social media addon displays Facebook, Twitter and Google+ buttons in your events. The Social Media addon comes free with all of the Event Espresso support licenses.
- Custom Files Addon: The Custom Files add on allows you to override certain aspects of the Event Espresso plugin.
- Roles And Permissions Basic & Pro Add on Versions: This add-on lets you involve others in your organization to help manage your events and give new users the capacity to create events or regional managers the capacity to manage events. The Roles and Permissions Basic add-on allows you to manage & customize the WordPress users roles and give them different permissions with different privileges, allowing others to help you manage your events or 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 sections 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.
- Event Ticketing Add on: The Ticketing add on adds the ability to generate tickets with bar codes. The Bar Scanning addon adds the ability to scan ticket bar codes. The ticketing add on includes the ability to customize event tickets. Multiple barcode types are included for managing check-in scans at the venue door. 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.
- Events Calendar Addon: This WordPress events calendar displays events and categories of events via an attractive graphical calendar.
- MailChimp Integration Addon: The MailChimp add on allows you to auto-register attendees to a selected mailing autoresponder list or group within MailChimp.
Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to its plugin, including new add ons.
To learn more about the newest Event Espreso features and add-ons, check out the plugin here:
User Testimonials
Below are just some of the many great testimonials that satisfied 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 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
”You guys have done an AWESOME job with this system…promise me to keep up the excellent work you guys are doing, for as long as you can… Respect!” Robert Jarnroth, Jarnroth Digital Productions
Event Espresso Tips
Whether you are a motivational speaker, presenter, seminar planner, or event consultant, there are simply unlimited possibilities of what you can achieve with the Event Espresso software.
After downloading the plugin and becoming a registered owner, spend a little time going through the support forum for new ideas and practical suggestions to streamline your event management process or enhance the experience of your registrants.
Support
Event Espresso works with with all WP plugins and WP themes that follow WP coding standards. If you experience issues with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides excellent support, as many of its plugin customers confirm:
”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
Event Espresso provides incredible support including access to support forums, in-depth online documentation with faqs, knowledge base 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 a well-staffed team of experienced web developers with a proven track record of support, so this is definitely software you can rely on to organize and manage your events.
Event Espresso Price
Event Espresso is available in different editions, including a FREE basic edition (called Event Espresso Decaf). For support and advanced software options, however, you should consider downloading one of the ”Pro” plugin versions below:
- Personal License – This enables you to run Event Espresso on 1 site only. Includes 51+ Premium features, (add ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
- Everything License Edition – This edition enables you to set up 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 – This license enables you to run Event Espresso on 5 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 special offers. When we last checked, the plugin retails for the pricing shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticket Management
Please Note: The pricing above was current when this article was written. This may or may not be the actual price charged by the plugin seller when you visit the website.
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.
Look up the software’s online documentation tools to find answers to common questions about setup and how to use Event Espresso, and visit the support forums if you have questions related to your specific situation, or to notify developers about bugs and give feedback.
For all installation and support documentation, demos, downloads, videos, tutorials, FAQ and more, visit the Event Espresso website.
We Recommend
Event Espresso is the leading WP event registration and ticketing manager software, used and trusted by thousands of companies.
If you are a WordPress site owner and you intend to run events that involve managing dates and venues (offline and online), enrolling attendees, and selling seating, 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 Plugin
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