Event Espresso - WordPress Event Management Plugin

Do you currently run or plan to run events that need handling bookings or registrations, such as seminars, group courses, not-for-profit fundraisers, social conferences, or even a large-scale event such as a festival, a sporting or religious event, or any kind of event where people need to book to attend or participate?

Managing event registrations can be a complex process. You will probably have to co-ordinate event schedules, available dates and spaces, attendee numbers, data collection and admin, payment processing and sending invoices, confirmations and reservations, reminders and alerts, cancellations … perhaps even accommodating special requests and issuing tickets to participants.

There are many benefits to setting up an automated online event registration system. It can streamline your business processes, save time and lower expenses, help you easily replicate similar events, give you more control, improve customer experience and increase your sales.

The problem is that setting up a web-based event booking system can be costly.

The good news is that if you own a WordPress-based website, you can set up an inexpensive and highly professional web-based event booking solution.

Announcing …

Table of Contents

Event Espresso – WordPress Event Management And Ticketing Registration Plugin

Event Espresso – WordPress Event Management And Ticketing Registration Plugin

Plugin Description

The Event Espresso online event registration WordPress software lets you easily schedule multiple events and start accepting online registrations in a few minutes.

(Event Espresso lets you set up multiple events and take online event registrations)

Event Espresso is a versatile and feature-packed application that gives you complete control over the event registration management process.

Event Espresso lets you customize event registration forms

You can employ a range of event registration strategies, from simple online sign-ups and straight up ticket-selling, to setting up custom registration forms for collecting detailed information about your event attendees, or integrating your event bookings with social media and autoresponders.

Access detailed information about your event attendees

Please Note: At the time of writing this review, Event Espresso is transitioning between two different versions of their software: Event Espresso 3 and EE 4. The new EE 4 is significantly different than the older Event Espresso 3, as the platform has been redeveloped using a different structure to accommodate future growth and expansion. The Event Espresso 4 plugin software has different features, user interface, data structure, coding method and pricing. The company plans to eventually phase out Event Espresso 3, so keep this in mind as you learn more about the benefits and features of this plugin.

Go here to learn more:

Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticket Manager

Benefits

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 And Ticketing System

Event Espresso provides you with everything you need to turn your existing website into a feature-rich and professional event management site … from custom registration forms and automated emails, to maximum seating limits, multiple pricing levels 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 increase your business productivity by practically eliminating the need to process registrations and bookings manually.

Basically, you are facilitating attendees to perform the registration by themselves.

Allowing your participants to do the data entry frees you up from doing administration and lets you focus more resources on delivering a better event.

Full Control Over The User Experience

As you will discover shortly, Event Espresso gives you more control over the event management and booking process that you want your customers to experience.

Some additional benefits and advantages include the following:

Reduced Costs: The Event Espresso plugin gives you an inexpensive online event registration management solution compared to other options or using a 3rd party service. This is made possible by using a model where you pay for the core plugin (which suits the needs of most users) and purchase addons when you need added features.
Higher Sales: With Event Espresso you can accept online event bookings 24 hrs a day. In addition, Event Espresso social features (see below) let people interested in registering for your event invite their friends who may be interested.
Paperless Event Sign Up Process: With Event Espresso, the event booking process can be transacted wholly online, reducing traditional paper waste from tasks associated with admin and record-keeping.
Own Your Information. You own all the data you collect from event participants.

Features

The Event Espresso software delivers functionality to end-users via built-in features (these are included with the software) and optional features that users can purchase, called add-ons.

Event Espresso offers a number of great features to WordPress users. Here are just a few:

Fast and simple to install and use. Ready to use in minutes.
Custom Event Registration. Event Espresso lets you gather specific data using custom event registration forms on your web site to prepare a unique experience for your event participants.
Customizable Event Page Designs. Create a unique look and feel for your events and bookings page using Event Espresso’s unlimited template options and components, as well as HTML and/or CSS.
Tax Administration. Event Espresso 4 gives you a number of options to manage taxes for an event and report tax fees to customers who purchase tickets. You can configure taxes globally and 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 sections.
Default Price Types. Price types let you create new prices that adjust the default ticket price of your default ticket.
In-App Documentation. Event Espresso 4 provides three detailed in-app documentation systems: Help Tours, Help Tabs and Tool Tips.
Contact Profiles & Contact List. EE 4 provides you with the tools to know who your clients are and how they have done business with you.
Administrative Pre-approval. Control who can and cannot register for your events.
Public Commenting. Add social interactivity to your events by encouraging potential attendees to interact with you online via commenting and past attendees to post comments that can help others decide whether or not to register. Moderation settings for comments are set using the WP native commenting settings.
Keyword Rich URLs. Keyword-rich event page URLs leverage your Permalinks configuration settings. Search engine friendly permalinks that have topic-relevant keywords enhance the context of your events and is favored by search engines, helping you bring a more targeted audience to your events.
Your Organization Settings. you can configure your organization’s profile to be used throughout the plugin and your WP themes. The organization information include: business name, address, city, state, country, zip code, primary contact email address, telephone, tax number, company logo, Facebook URL, Twitter URL, LinkedIn profile URL, Pinterest profile URL, Google+ profile URL, Instagram URL.
Bulk Edit Event Data. EE 4 provides an advanced importing feature that allows you to upload bulk event data at once. You can export, edit and import information about events, datetimes, tickets, prices, registration questions, venue info, terminology, taxonomies, term relationships and more.
Multiple Attendee Enrolments. Event Espresso 4 allows one person or an organization to purchase multiple tickets and different types of tickets at the same time. Event managers decide how many people are allowed to register in one session by specifying either a limit on ticket purchases per order, or per-ticket minimums and maximums.
A Community Of Event Experts. Event Espresso provides users with access to a community of experienced event managers, programmers, web designers, marketers and business owners who also use the plugin. You can engage with other Event Espresso users through their community chat room, support forums, job board, and social media pages on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Google+.
Social Sharing. Event registrants and website visitors can help increase exposure for your event using social media sharing buttons.
Categorize Events. If you have several different types of events like free and paid, conference speakers and breakout sessions, different types of programs and program modules, etc. you can categorize them to help your attendees to locate what they’re looking for. You can list all the events in a category on an event category page, make all events searchable by category, and colour-code your events on the Event Espresso events calendar to make them easier to find, as well as suggesting other events in the categories that interest your existing customers.

Extra features include:

Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). Event Espresso is simple enough for general WordPress users, and also robust and customizable for enterprise-level users and web developers. The bottom line is that by using Object-oriented programming (OOP), EE 4 makes possible more complex enhancements and customizations to the plugin.
Maintenance Mode. You can pause registration capabilities for normal site traffic when site maintenance is required. You can still work on your event pages during maintenance mode.
Flexibility, Autonomy & Value: According to the mission statement on their website, Event Espresso’s goal 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 comes with 40+ additional features, including:

Email shortcodes that includes participant data in confirmation emails and email updates.
Default surcharge (the same as applying a service fee to all tickets).
Option to skip the confirmation page during the registration process.

Event Espresso Add-Ons

As mentioned earlier, Event Espresso provides “add-ons”, which allow end-users to further 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 Template Add on: The Recurring Events Drop-down custom template lets you organize events with many datetimes into a drop-down list.
Events Date Range Template Add on: The Date Range custom event list template enables your users to search for events that take place in a certain date range.
Events Social Sharing Addon: Add social sharing features to the end of your Event Espresso “thank you” page that lets your registrants to post a message about their event registration on Twitter and Facebook after registration.
Custom Files Add on: The Custom Files add on provides PHP files that let you bypass certain aspects of the Event Espresso plugin.
Roles And Permissions Basic & Pro Add on Editions: This add on lets you involve other staff in the event management process and give new users permission to create events or regional managers the ability to manage events. The Roles and Permissions Basic add-on allows you to manage & customize the WordPress users roles and allow them different permissions with different capabilities, so your staff can help you manage your events or events that others create. You can customize roles so that a user does not have access to certain areas of your WordPress dashboard and/or certain areas of your Event Espresso settings. If you’d like to allow users to control factors geographically for events and users, use the Roles and Permissions Pro add-on.
Event Ticketing Add on: The Ticketing addon adds the capacity 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 barcode types are included for handling check-in scans at the venue door. Registrants can either print out their tickets or display them on their mobile devices. The mobile app can be used for checking in or checking out attendees and to validate tickets.
EE4 Events Calendar Addon: This addon uses the WP calendar to display events and event categories in a nice graphical calendar.
MailChimp Integration: The MailChimp add on allows you to auto-register attendees to a chosen autoresponder list or group within MailChimp.

Note: Event Espresso regularly adds new features and improvements to its software, including new add ons.

For more details about the newest Event Espreso features and add ons, visit the plugin website:

Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticket Management

Plugin Users – Testimonials

Below are just some of the testimonials that satisfied customers 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 recently downloaded it to add to a nonprofit site for a Boy Scout troop and the features work wonderfully with what we wanted to accomplish for the site. It allows us to set up calendar, events, and even take payments for trips. At first, I thought that it would be overkill for such a small site, but now I see the possibilities and will definitely be offering Event Espresso to my clients that need an event organization system for their web sites.” Lucy Conn, Troop 462
”I played around with the free version for a couple hours then purchased the Pro for a client. Love it and so do they! Sweetest Event plugin I have tried.” Bill Chambers, Bill Chambers Design

Plugin Tips

Whether you are a gym owner, presenter, festival promoter, or event management professional, 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 owner, visit the support forum for inspiration and practical ways to improve your event management process and improve the experience of your event participants.

Support

Event Espresso is fully compatible with all WP plugins and themes that follow standard WordPress development rules. If you have problems with the plugin, however, you will find that Event Espresso provides excellent technical support, as many of its satisfied plugin users confirm:

”It’s magical. Support is amazing, plugin is simple to use, a 3 year old could use the iPhone app…it all is very impressive and professional.” David, House of Prayer

The Event Espresso software provides incredible support including access to support forums, comprehensive online documentation with faqs, knowledgebase 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.

In addition, Event Espresso boasts a well-staffed team of experienced web developers with a solid track record of support, so this is definitely a plugin you can depend on to manage your events.

Software Price

Event Espresso is available in different editions, including a FREE basic edition (called Event Espresso Decaf). For support and advanced plugin functionality, however, you should consider downloading one of the paid plugin editions below:

Personal Edition – This enables you to set up Event Espresso on 1 site only. Includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and 1 year of upgrades and support. Price = $69.95.
Everything License – This allows you to run 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 edition enables you to configure Event Espresso on 5 sites. Includes 51+ Premium features, (add-ons sold separately) and one year of upgrades and support. Cost = $249.95.

Current pricing for the Event Espresso plugin depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time specials being offered. Currently, the plugin sells for the amounts shown above. Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details: Event Espresso – Event Registration And Ticket Manager

Please Note: The above reflects the pricing when this article was written. This may or may not be the actual pricing charged by the plugin developer when you visit the site.

Event Espresso – Additional Info

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.

Use the software’s online documentation pages to find answers to common questions about setup and how to use Event Espresso, and the support forums for questions related to a particular 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.

Our Recommendation

Event Espresso is the preferred WP event registration and ticketing management plugin, used by thousands of people.

If you are a WordPress user and you intend to run events that require scheduling dates and venues (offline and online), booking participants, and booking tickets, then you will probably not find a better software for your needs than Event Espresso.