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5 Technology Trends Shaping Events in 2018

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virtual-reality-example Gone are the days when events were planned with whiteboards, diaries, planners, or spreadsheets and PPTs. The world is moving on from word-of-mouth and power-of-the-pen concepts for creating event experiences, with some seriously cool technological innovations that will give your events that edge above the rest. If you are already in planning mode for your events in 2018, then you had better check out these 5 awesome technologies. Make your event experience the best there has been yet with these innovative inventions.

5 Event-Shaping Technology Trends to Watch Out for in 2018

Folks all over the world have become increasingly tech-savvy, with demographics of all age groups and walks of life owning and operating gadgets for all kinds of purposes with ease. The 5 tech trends that we are about to mention may require some gadgets for an enhanced experience. Without further ado, let’s get to it.

#1 The Omnipresence of Mixed Reality

What would you say about people attending your event from their homes? Or on their travel journey? The reaction would probably be a mix of “Huh” and “Awesome” right? Mixed reality makes this possible, enabling greater event attendance and a unique experience for everyone who visits. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are a part of this concept. They aren’t novel inventions, and have been seen around; like Google’s Daydream VR, for instance. This real time collaboration between actual and virtual (digital) objects will allow your attendees to virtually attend the event with the feeling of actually being there. The entire event will unfold as it is in front of their eyes, with the only difference being that they are experiencing it virtually.

#2 Live streaming – Real Time Event Fervor and Reach

Not everyone will own VR or AR equipment because, let’s fact it, it is an investment. The cheaper and more popular alternative to this is live streaming. Whether it is via drones, on social media, or any other way, live streaming is a really powerful way to boost event attendance and tell more people about it. Drones that have 4K cameras installed in them can stream the event to people’s social profile feeds as it unfolds. Crowd streaming, which takes the concept a notch higher, encourages attendees to share their event experiences in real time. Others join in too, taking the event attendance to an all new high. And because so many users are talking about it as it happens, there’s a greater level of trust and credibility surrounding the event.

#3 Personalization to Boost Loyalty

Personalization means giving users what they want, when they want it. Although this sounds far-fetched or difficult, it is actually possible and almost everyone is doing it too. Google’s predictive analysis algorithm offers suggestions depending on your search history and trends. It picks up your preferences to show you more relevant information. The same can be done for events, like creating personalized offers and invites. Creating clever email campaigns that are timed perfectly and interspersed with activities, offers, and discounts can help get the most out of your efforts. Personalization is the future of online marketing, so why not make the most of it? Offer your existing email listers something extra for their loyalty, or create interactive mini-events urging people to show some love for the event or participating artistes. Keeping in mind what’s trending and what the folks love will help you create an effective personalized event experience.

#4 RFID – a Seamless Solution

RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) is a part of meeting planning automation, which are software platforms that ease the process of event planning, prevent communication gaps, errors, problems with scheduling, and improper operational execution. RFID tags have been used at some popular events and fests in the past, like Coachella. The RFID strips can be placed on a small wristband that attendees can wear. This strip will have a tag that will store all the information relating to the attendee’s ticket, tier (if any), name, age, and other information that’s needed to attend independent performances at the event. This will save you the hassle of recording the required info for every single person.

#5 Data Analysis to Measure ROI

Using event planning software and technology makes it easier for planners to collect huge amounts of conclusive data for measuring the event’s ROI and predicting attendance, demand, and resources required. Every piece of technology that’s involved in the event, like cameras, sensors, drones, social media engagement, can help analyze the ROI of the event. This becomes easier also because events today are very niche and specific. It also helps with efficient management and logistics. The crowd attendance, density, and even engagement can help assess whether more tickets are needed, supplies need to be re-stocked faster, or some on-the-spot, real-time communicative solution has to be found. This will help planners manage the crowd better and keep attendees happy while making sure the event goes off without a hitch.

Parting Thoughts

Event planning technologies take a lot of load off event planners and organizers, enabling them to pull it off successfully. Managing operations on such a large scale, making sure nothing goes wrong, nothing falls short, and everyone is happy is no mean feat. Technological intervention is a blessing. So if you want to create some powerful, popular, and memorable events in 2018, then take heed of these trends!

5 Best Event Management Plugins on WordPress Reviewed

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event-ticketManaging events online, using nothing but your WordPress site, has become possible on account of the 1000 odd plugins available today for the purpose.

From creating registrations, advance bookings, free-for-all events, to webinars, conferences, workshops and fundraisers, these plugins work to give you a complete system for creating, organizing and managing your Event.

These plugins come in a variety of shapes and sizes; ranging from basic, feature-specific plugins, to high-end event management systems. Some are feature-rich, some are easy to use while yet others are priced more economically than the rest.

Choosing an appropriate plugin, depending on what you need and what you want, from this milieu can be an exhausting task.

I don’t understand the technology. But you don’t have to. You have to understand what it can do for you.

– Rupert Murdoch

Which is why, we have narrowed this list down, to the five best event management plugins for WordPress, which we will be discussing in detail here. In no specific order, these are:

  • Events Manager Pro
  • Event Espresso
  • Events Calendar
  • EventOn
  • All-in-One Events Calendar by Timely

In this series, we will take you through each of these five plugins individually and exhaustively, root, tree and branch, comparing them based on specific criteria; so that you can make an informed decision about which of these plugins best suits your requirements.

We review these plugins based on:

Ease of Use

A look at how easily the plugin can be installed and operated, how intuitive the settings are, how accessible the functions are and how responsive the plugin is. The compatibility of the plugin with WordPress themes also needs to be taken into account, since it ought not to keep throwing up bugs for you to sort out.

Inbuilt Features

Perhaps the most important consideration while choosing an event management plugin, the functionalities a plugin offers are the cornerstone of how well it works in creating and managing event efficiently.

For an event management plugin in particular, some of the important features that plugins ought to possess are:

  • Events Design and Ticket Setup
  • Event Registration
  • Online Ticket Selling Facilities
  • Events Display
  • E-Commerce Support
  • Attendee Management
  • Smooth Customer Interaction
  • Venue Management
  • User Management
  • Spam Protection
  • Payment Options
  • Tax Administration
  • Localization

These are some of the most essential features an event management plugin requires, to organize and control an event successfully.

Pricing

Although pricing should never be the primary criteria for choosing a plugin, it is an important factor nevertheless.

Plugin prices generally differ according to the features and the support they provide. It makes sense to be clear of what you need, currently and in the future, so that you can purchase the plugin accordingly.

The plugins we are going to discuss are, almost all of them, premium plugins.

It is generally believed that paid plugins are more reliable, in terms of support and updates, but that is not true in every case. The point is, it is necessary to gauge what functionalities you need now and will need later, and then buy the plugin, not just because it is popular.

That said, compromising on quality for a few bucks is not sensible either.

You get it.

Support and Updates

This is the gray area for every plugin.

Ease of use, features and pricing, all are what you see is what you get factors, but for support and updates, you are solely dependent on the plugin developers.

Speaking specifically for event management plugins, you are bound to come up with queries when planning for major events, or are a new user (relatively), managing hundreds of people.

A strong support system and extensive documentation is a godsend here, as they can guide you through the process and resolve any glitches that turn up. Besides, regular updation of the plugin, be it for minor bug fixes or some big overhaul, always helps you know if the plugin is in working order.

The five plugins we will talk about here have all got decent support and update systems, more or less, which we will see further.

Integrations and Extensions

An event management plugin needs to be flexible enough from the developers’ point of view, so that it can be tailored to fit individual requirements. It helps if the plugin has plenty of hooks and filters for coders to add specific functionalities, as per the site’s individual requirements.

Generally, it is better to begin with the basics and go on incorporating changes into the source code, when the need for a particular functionality turns up. This keeps the plugin light and also prevents redundancy of features.

Apart from extensions, event management plugins ought to have integrations that leverage the features of other plugins, each specific to their field of expertise. For example, if a plugin does not have an in-built e-mail newsletter system, it could provide an email marketing add-on as a solution. This lets the event manager avail of the best of the two domains, instead of having to forego the feature altogether.

Endnote

Use of WordPress as a platform for creating Event Management websites is very much in vogue today.

The simplicity of WordPress coupled with the versatility of event management plugins gives the user powerful tools to build a full-fledged Event Creation and Management website.

The criteria we have seen above are a yardstick for a good event management plugin, and that is what the shortlisted plugins will be measured up against.

Let the Plugin Games begin! 😀

Stay tuned for the detailed plugin reviews here!

How to Create a Movie Ticketing System with Events Calendar

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movie-websiteAh movies! The love of cinema!

The story that captures your imagination, the joy of meeting up with friends, the smell of butter popcorn, the romance, the comedy, the action…. all that begins with a simple movie ticket.

And in this day and age that very movie ticket is purchased on an online cinema booking system.

In this article I’ll be covering how such an online portal – that connects a moviegoer with a movie search and ticket booking option- is built.

Let’s take a look.

What is a Movie Ticketing System?

A movie ticketing or cinema booking system is essentially an event booking system, the movie is the event and moviegoers are attendees. If you’ve booked a ticket online, you know the kind of system I’m talking about. If not, you could check out AMC Theatres or BookMyShow. Both are classic examples of movie booking websites with some differences of course.

Both these websites represent two types of systems. The AMC Theatres website is tied to a single movie theatre chain. Whereas BookMyShow is an aggregator, that fetches movies from different theatres, and provides a single point of booking.

Now, the primary difference between the two is how movies are listed, and how bookings are handled. For a website linked to an individual movie theatre, movies have to be added manually and bookings have to be handled on the website. For movie aggregators everything is managed using APIs. Movie aggregators link to individual movie theatre websites and handle movie listings and bookings using APIs provided.

A Tiny Detour for the Inquisitive Mind

Although this article will cover a movie ticketing system linked to a single movie theatre, let’s talk about movie aggregators before we continue.

Say you want to build a movie aggregator, which links to AMC Theatres among others. You’ll need to use the API provided by such movie booking websites. So, to fetch movie listings from AMC Theatres, you’ll have to refer to the AMC Developer Portal.

You will need to work with this API to list movies, upcoming releases, handle booking and so on. The API merely connects you to the actual AMC website, which returns the needed information, or freezes the booking to complete the purchase.

(But all of this is a topic for another day. It certainly does require us to dive deep into development and let’s not stress ourselves out at this point. 😉 )

So, let’s take a look at how we can create a movie ticketing system from the ground up.

A platform can really help you speed up the development, and you’d have guessed it by now, that my platform of choice is WordPress. Now, I could go on and on about why WordPress is great for both clients and developers alike, but you should find most of those points covered here.

Events Calendar as the Core of the Booking System

Ever heard the phrase there’s an app for that. Well in WordPress world there’s a joke that’s going around- “there’s a plugin for that!”. :-p

Well, in this case there is a plugin which we can use. We basically need to pick an event booking engine as the core of our system. Now out of the pool of very many event management plugins available, all might seem to match your basic needs. But, you need to consider future possibilities and whether the plugin would meet your needs down the road.

Let’s begin by listing the features the plugin needs to have:

  1. An option to add and list events (or movies)
  2. Event categorization option
  3. Event Search option
  4. Ticket purchase option
  5. Pricing options for tickets

Of course if you’re planning for the whole shebang, then you’ll have to look for a plugin that has:

  1. A seat booking option
  2. Ticket cancellation option
  3. Event reviews & ratings
  4. Social Sharing options

Well, when I look at these feature lists, there are two plugins that come to mind: Events Calendar PRO and Event Espresso (EE4). The two leading event management plugins, that cover most of these features with ease.

I’d recommend Events Calendar:

  • The Recurring events functionality makes adding movie show timings on multiple days simple (if you’re not planning on selling tickets)
  • The Location search option with a Map view makes finding a theatre nearby easy
  • The WooCommerce integration makes several payment gateways available
  • The option to export event details to a Google Calendar or iCal make reminders easy
  • The Eventbrite integration can act as a workaround for seat selection

Event Espresso too has some good features, and if those are the one’s you need, Event Espresso could be your choice for the system. Here’s what works for Event Espresso:

  • Multiple date and times per event
  • A ticket scanning add-on to scan movie tickets at the venue
  • EE3 (legacy version of Event Espresso) has a seating chart add-on as well

Honestly, you could pick either. But Events Calendar does provide you a cost-effective base.

Okay. So, what’s next?

Ah yes, picking the right theme!

Picking the Right Theme

Now, when you install WordPress, it comes with a set of default themes. But let’s face it, those default themes are quite an eyesore (except for Twenty Fifteen. But Twenty Fifteen is more of a blog theme, and is not suitable for a movie booking website).

So, for your website, you could follow my oh-so-famous guide to picking the right theme 😀 . But here’s the gist, you’ll need a responsive theme that behaves well with Events Calendar and WooCommerce (that’s not necessarily built for a bookings website).

My pick of the lot is The7.

  • It needs no knowledge of coding
  • It’s got a page builder in-built (Visual Composer along with Ultimate Add-on for VC)
  • Header layouts and Color options… and more.
the7-responsive-theme

Once you install and activate the theme, you can install one of the demos to get your site up and ready in no time.

Installing the Plugins

You can then install and activate the needed and peripheral plugins:

  1. The Events Calendar
  2. The Events Calendar PRO
  3. WooCommerce
  4. Event Tickets
  5. Event Tickets Plus

There are some settings involved. We’ll take things one step at a time.

Adding Your First Movie

I’m sure you’re excited about setting up your first movie, so let’s start with The Events Calendar plugin.

You need to begin by setting up the plugin. Head over to Events -> Settings. (Remember, the PRO version adds more options to the base plugin, so the options are available under the same menu)

Now, the most important options you need to set here are:

  • Events URL Slug to ‘movies’
  • Single event URL slug to ‘movie’
  • End of day cutoff to the time the last show ends. For eg., 1:00 am
  • Currency options
the-events-calendar-settings

Most other options could be left as is. Or you could quickly browse through them and updated the ones you need.

Now over to creating your first movie event. 😀

If you have a user level understanding of WordPress, adding events should be a breeze. Head over to Events -> Add New.

Enter the title, description and add a featured image (movie poster). You can then update movie specific settings.

For any movie show, you’ll have to enter the Start Date & Time and End Date & Time. Now, this event will be for a single show- so, it will be on the specified date at the set time (start time to end time).

events-calendar-add-movie-times

For example, the above movie will play from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm on 11th December.

If the movie will be played on multiple days at the same time, you’ll need to setup the movie show as a recurring event or duplicate the event multiple times.

Use Recurring Events If you’re not planning on selling tickets online

Setting up recurring events is easy. All you need to do, is set a Recurrence Rule, for everyday.

events-calendar-recurring-rule

You can even set Exclusion rules if the movie show is not available on certain days, say for example the weekend.

events-calendar-recurring-rules-exclusions

Once you’re done setting the rules, you can update the movie event. (You’ll have to do the same for all shows)

Duplicate Events If you are planning on selling tickets online

Since Event Tickets Plus does not support individual tickets for recurring events, you’ll have to duplicate each event to add separate tickets.

Duplicating events is easy. You know what you have to do. To save you the manual effort, you can use a post duplicator plugin or the Duplicate TEC Event plugin.

Once you create your event, you should now notice the movie added to the events calendar.

the-events-calendar-movie-event

Movie Search Options

The Events Calendar provides a calendar search option which moviegoers can use to filter movies based on dates. And you can use the Events Calendar widgets to display upcoming shows in the sidebar.

events-calendar-upcoming-movies-widget

All good with adding and searching for movie shows? The final step is handling payments.

Handling Payments

So far we’ve only added a movie show notification. We haven’t added a price or purchase option. Let’s take care of that to have our basic movie booking website ready!

Now, the Events Calendar plugin does provide an option to set the ticket price. You should notice the Event Cost option on any movie (event) add/edit page.

events-calendar-price

However, the plugin by default does not provide a booking option. Hence you would need the Event Tickets Plus extension (and Event Tickets). And of course- WooCommerce as the e-commerce cart.

When you activate WooCommerce, you need to follow the basic steps to set up your store. What’s important is activating the needed payment gateways so that buyers have multiple options to make payments.

Now over to adding tickets!

Once you install and activate the Event Tickets Plus extension, you should notice a Tickets option added under your events (movies).

events-calendar-ticket

Use this option to add new tickets, and to sell them using WooCommerce. You can create multiple tickets each priced differently if needed.

  • You need to set the Ticket Name
  • Ticket Description
  • The Price
  • The Stock (number of seats available)

events-calendar-tickets-woocommerce

Remember to update the movie, once you’ve added your tickets.

If you go back to your movie on the front-end, you should notice a ticket purchase option.

tickets-plus-events-calendar

Interested buyers can add tickets to their cart and make the purchase. WooCommerce handles the purchase part, so you don’t need to worry about it.

So you can continue following the same steps to add more movies and showtimes, and add tickets.

And there you have it!

Your very own movie booking website is ready!!

But you shouldn’t stop there. What I’ve covered is just the basics. There’s a lot more you can add. Like social sharing options, movie ratings and reviews, seat selection, and even create a mobile app!

But that’s a lot to cover in one article, let’s wind up for now.

So, over to you? Got questions, opinions? Fire away!

Take Charge of Your Events Manager Website with Memberships

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login-page-memberThere are two kinds of stores. One– a brand-owned store. For example an Apple Store – it sells products belonging to only one brand. And, the other– a store which sells products belonging to different brands. For example, Best Buy – you’d find products from Apple, Microsoft, Dell and so on.

You could draw a parallel between these stores and event management websites as well. There are some events websites which sell tickets for their own events. And others which allow third-party organizations to sell their event tickets.

The primary difference between the two is management.

If you sell tickets for your own events, management is simple. You’re the only one in charge. But, as you can imagine, if third-party event organizers sell tickets on your site, management can be a nightmare.

Management Problems can be Solved using Membership

Let’s take the example of a scenario. There are two users interested in posting an event on your website- A) Mr. X- a random user- you do not know anything about, and  b) Mr. John Mellow- an event organizer and a regular event poster.

If you could allow only one user to post, which user would you choose?

John Mellow, right?!

Undoubtedly, you’d have your reservations about Mr. X.

Guest users are like Mr.X, you do not know what to expect from them. Managing such users can be a challenge. On the other hand, members of your events website are like John Mellow. You’d be happy picking John Mellow over Mr. X any day.

Members are easier to control

With membership, a user is tied to your website. You can control the user’s activities and access, and maintain the user’s history:

  1. You can control the user’s access
  2. You can restrict the number of events a user can post, or the number of images a user can upload
  3. You can maintain a history of events posted
  4. You can maintain reviews about the user
  5. You can prevent the member form posting events by suspending his/her membership

Membership can help Monetize Event Submission

By associating membership levels with a price, you can monetize event management as well:

  1. You can create paid membership levels
  2. Membership levels can be associated with the number of events which can be posted
  3. You could charge members an extra fee to feature events

If this sounds interesting, and sounds like something you’d like to implement on your event management website, I’ll explain just how to do that next!!

How to Add Membership to Your Event Management Website

For your event management website built with Events Manager you can seamlessly integrate a membership plugin using the hooks the plugin provides.

A membership plugin I would recommend would be Paid Membership Pro. Paid Membership Pro is a solid plugin. But there’s another reason why I’d recommend using PMPro with Events Manager.

It’s because I know both plugins would work perfectly well together, since I have hands on experience integrating the two!

Note:- You’d have to be fairly knowledgeable with WordPress development to integrate the two plugins. If you’re not a WordPress developer, you’ll be better off contacting one.

If you’re up for the task, here goes!

Setting-up Paid Membership Pro

  1. You have to begin by setting up membership levels
  2. Each membership level has to be associated with a price
  3. We also have to assign an event posting limit* with each level as meta value.

*Now, this limit will control the number of events a member can post on the site, for the purchased membership level. For example, say you have a ‘Basic’ membership level. You can add a limit of ‘5’ for this level. For members who purchase ‘Basic’ membership will have the option to post 5 events.

But how to restrict the member from posting events?

We’ll take a look at just that, next!

Modifying Events Manager Plugin

To restrict the number of events a member can submit, we’ll have to modify the ‘Add Event’ option. This is because we need to prevent the member from adding a new event, once the member has exhausted the allotted limit.

#1 Override the events template, to hide ‘Add Event’ option upon exceeding the limit

You’ll have to override the events template. Head over to events-manager->templates->tables->events.php, and copy it to your theme, in a corresponding path as explained here.

Search for $show_add_new.

Now, modify the ‘Add New’ button display as follows:

// check if member has exhausted event posting limit
$event_post_allowance = get_user_meta( $current_user->ID, 'event_allowance_limit',true);
if(empty($event_post_allowance))
{
    $event_post_allowance = 0;
}
else
{
    $event_post_allowance = intval($event_post_allowance);
}
if(!empty($show_add_new) && ($event_post_allowance > 0) && current_user_can('edit_events'))
// rest of the code

#2 Add filter on ‘Add Event’ display, to hide the button if limit is exceeded

If the add new event button was displayed, and the user has exhausted the limit by posting several events, we need to hide the button. For this, add the below code in functions.php of your child theme.

add_filter( 'em_event_validate', 'wdm_validate_event_allowance' );
function wdm_validate_event_allowance( $result, $this ) {
   global $EM_Notices, $current_user;

   if ( empty( $_REQUEST[ 'event_id' ] ) ) {
       // add constraint on event posting
       $event_post_allowance = get_user_meta( $current_user->ID, 'event_allowance_limit', true );
       if ( empty( $event_post_allowance ) ) {
           $event_post_allowance = 0;
       } else {
           $event_post_allowance = intval( $event_post_allowance );
       }
       if ( ! ($event_post_allowance > 0) ) {
           $EM_Notices->add_error( sprintf( __( "You can't post a new event.", "wdm" ) ) );
           return false;
       }
   }
}

Similarly, you can control the number of images or files a member can upload.

Your Thoughts?

Adding membership levels to your event management website can simplify the management process. If you agree or do not, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below!

Event Management WordPress Plugin Review: Events Manager

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Events-Manager-WordPress-Plugin

A friend of mine wanted to rent office space. After about 6 months of hunting for commercial spaces, she shortlisted 2 options.

The first was at a great location, quite spacious, but was completely unfurnished. To pick that option, she’d have to run around and gather furniture, build cabinets, subscribe to an internet service and so on. She of course had the flexibility to pick the service or furniture of her choice, but it would take her a lot of time.

The other option was at a good enough location, but was completely furnished and a ready-to-move-in space. The internet service was setup as well. All she had to do was call the movers and she’d have her office setup in a day.

And that’s the option she went with.

But why am I telling you all of this?

Well, sometimes you just want that one complete solution. A go-to-option, that you can just pick up and get to work with. Not 15 pieces to put together. It’s the one that solves your problem in one go and saves you time.

And that is exactly what the Events Manager plugin is- it is a one-stop solution to creating an events website on WordPress.

The Events Manager Plugin – An Event Registration plugin for WordPress

Events Manager was originally created in 2008 by Davide Benini for his Irish folk band. In 2009, Marcus Sykes joined on board, and has led the development process since version 3.0. With 7 years of development and user feedback backing the plugin, you ought to know the plugin has quite a bit of features to offer.

events-manager-calendar-widget

Events Calendar Widget by Events Manager

Out of the long list of features (which you are free to explore), the ones which stand out for me are:

  1. Recurring and Multi-day event registration
  2. Multiple ticket classes
  3. Member event submissions
  4. An Events Calendar feature
  5. BuddyPress Integration
  6. Multisite support

There aren’t many event management plugins which come with a BuddyPress integration (with options to create group events, personal events, activity stream updates), hence Events Manager gets a +1 for that!

Well, the features can help you decide if that’s the plugin you’ll need to build your event management website. I’ll let you take a look at those. But what I want to discuss are the nitty-gritties of the plugin- simple factors that can help you judge the plugin usability and overheads.

Below is my experience with the plugin.

Is Events Manager Easy to Use?

Yes. (When I talk about ‘ease of use’, I refer to the ease in setting up and using the plugin).

When I installed the Events Manager plugin, it guided me- it told me what I need to do next.

I liked that.

As indicated, I headed over to the ‘Events Manager -> Settings’ menu. There were general settings options, options for pages and permalinks, formatting and email settings.

Okay. Quite good.

I then began exploring a few options. There were about 60 general settings options (I counted). And in the total settings Events Manager provides, that was just the tip of the iceberg.

I had mixed feelings. In a way, I was glad had the possibility to customize everything. But I was flustered by the multitudinous options. So I headed over to the Events Manager ‘Getting Started‘ guide, which gave me a brief idea of my next steps.

Now, my developer-half will tell you that a plugin ideally should provide few important settings, and provide hooks instead for additional settings which alter the plugin’s behavior. However, my plugin-user-half will tell you the settings can help you fine tune the plugin without having to meddle with any code!

As far as event management options are concerned, Events Manager adds a seamless menu in your WordPress admin panel, with easy to follow options to add and manage events, event categories, event tags, locations, and bookings.

So, for ease of use, the Events Manager plugin gets a 3.75 on 5.

Ease of Use: 3.75/5

Events Manager Settings Cheat Sheet

I’ve created a cheat sheet for those of you looking to skim through the settings.

  1. Options under ‘Settings->Bookings’ are by far the most important
    • You can set the currency and pricing settings here. You need to verify or set every option under ‘Ticket Options’.
    • The ‘No-User Booking Mode’ has to be used when you want to allow guest bookings, and want to assign all guest bookings to a specific user.
  2. If you want to allow guest submissions, you need to go through the ‘Settings->General->Event Submission Forms options.
    • It has options to allow front-end submission of events, anonymous event submissions, creating a guest user to submit events, and so on.
  3. The default templates provided under ‘Settings->Email settings’ are good enough but if you want personalized messages, you need to update them.
  4. Do not bother with the ‘Settings->Formatting’ options if you are not a frontend developer.
  5. Updating options under ‘Settings->Performance Optimization’ can help you prevent loading of unnecessary JS and CSS files on all pages. If you know what has to be done follow the Optimization Recommendations provided in the plugin documentation.

How long does it take to setup an Event?

Considering the plugin was installed and activated, it took me exactly 3 minutes 42 seconds to set up the pricing options, create a location and create and publish an event.

I used a timer- not kidding.

Subsequent event creation took me about 2-3 minutes, considering I had to occasionally create a new location or an event category, add the event description and tickets. That’s pretty good.

So, for event setup the plugin gets a 4/5.

Event Setup: 4/5

How is the UI? Can it be Easily Customized?

The user interface is simple. That’s good. I don’t like plugins adding their own styling. I tested the single event layout with 3 themes:

  1. The Twenty Fifteen WordPress default Theme
  2. A Genesis Child Theme
  3. A free Events Theme

The single event layout worked well on all the above themes, when there was a sidebar present. It needed some tweaks to display it well on a full-width layout. Thankfully plugin templates could be overridden, and Events Manager provides me a Using Template Files guide to customize them.

events-manager-event-layout

I could also make simple CSS changes with ease (for the events calendar as well) because all elements had classes. I really appreciate that about any theme or plugin!

UI and Design Customization : 4/5

Is it Simple to Manage Bookings?

When it comes to event bookings I needed the Events Manager Pro add-on, and you’ll HAVE to use it as well. That’s unless you’re okay with handling offline payments. The thing is, Events Manager is an event management plugin, and you’ll need the Pro add on to handle bookings.

With the Pro add-on you can use PayPal and Authorize.Net to handle ticket purchases on your events website. You can add discount coupons as well.

In Events Manager->Settings->Bookings, there are options provided to handle pricing, guest bookings and so on. The Pro add-on allows you to customize bookings forms as well.

You can easily manage registrations and cancellations, but an option I’d like to see is a possibility to a set a time limit before a cancellation can be made. For example, ‘Allow Cancellation before 2 hours of Event Start time’.

Even though popular payment gateways are integrated into the Pro plugin, I’d like to see additional payment gateways like Stripe added.

Booking Management: 3/5

How is the Documentation?

Now, I didn’t read every link the plugin documentation provides, but I can tell you it needs some improvement. I wanted a list of the action hooks and filters the plugin provides and all I got to read was this.

events-manager-plugin-hooks

But to be honest, you wouldn’t need to bother with the documentation much. The plugin settings are quite self explanatory, and I know the plugin offers great support, so that’s something you can bank on. Hence, I’ll give the plugin a 3 on 5 for documentation.

Documentation: 3/5

What is the cost of the plugin?

The Events Manager is a completely FREE plugin. 100% totally free. And the base version has the motherload of features. But, as mentioned, unless you handle offline payments you’ll have to go with the PRO- and that would set you back $75. But you shouldn’t be too worried about the price. That’s relatively cheap compared to event management plugins which offer the same range of features. And your getting an entire event management and bookings system for goodness sake! So, for that Events Manager gets a 5/5 for the price.

Price: 5/5

The Verdict

I was certainly impressed with the Events Manager plugin- especially with the long list of features it offers. Honestly, you’ll probably not need every option to begin with. But as you set up your site, and look to add new features, you wouldn’t have to look too far- Events Manager probably already has it.

There are certain areas for improvement of course. For example, I’d love to see waitlist functionality, additional payment gateways and advanced functionality like seating chart added to the plugin.

But overall the plugin fares really well, as it comes for a GREAT PRICE, so it gets a 3.9/5

Events Manager: 3.9/5

What are your thoughts about the Events Manager plugin? What has been your experience using it?

If your views differ from mine, I’m open to discussion. Because you might enjoy drinking espresso, but once in a while you could try a cup of herbal tea which has a lot of goodness! 😉

What, Why and How of a Meetup Based Event Website on WordPress

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Learndash-BuddyPress-Integration-groupsAs a kid my “Social Network” mostly consisted of “the Outside World”. This quirk has pretty much remained the same even today. I would any day prefer connecting with someone in person than through a virtual medium.

Having said that, I also realize the importance of Social Media in the 21st century. More so as a Marketer. Social networking websites have slowly translated to becoming a necessity from being an option.

So how would it be to have the best of both worlds in one go? Sounds good?

It definitely does to me! In fact, I know several people who would like to have a good mix of online and offline interaction. That’s where a Meetup Based Event Website on WordPress comes in and that’s exactly what I will be discussing about in my post today.

What is a Meetup Based Event Website?

First things first. It’s important to understand what a meetup based event website would comprise of. The primary idea that such a system would follow would be to initially connect like minded people online through various niche groups and then follow it up with offline events organized using the system. However, you should not mistake it for an event listing website.

This system is much more than an event listings website.

Apart from listing events that will be organized offline, it allows individuals to connect with other like-minded individuals by joining groups of interest. Also, members of a group can connect with each other online through group discussions and private messages.

Interestingly enough though there aren’t many websites apart from meetup.com that allow similar functionalities and that’s what makes a meetup based event website a promising business opportunity.

Why Users will be Interested in a Meetup Based Event Website?

  • It’s a great way to meet like-minded individuals, make new friends and spend time participating in activities of interest.
  • It’s often a great way of meeting potential business associates, partner or clients.
  • A meetup based event website is a good place to build your knowledge in niche areas without investing much in terms of money.

Plugins You’ll Need to Build a Meetup Based Event Website?

There are three primary functionalities pertaining to the meetup based event website. The first would be a user’s ability to create groups for a particular niche. People interested in a particular type of niche can join any available groups. The second would be to provide a group’s admin the ability to create events that will be organized offline. Lastly, the system would require a feature to display a calendar for all the events.

To fulfill these requirements, the following three plugins will be required.

  • BuddyPress
  • Event Espresso
  • Events Calendar for Event Espresso

Creating Groups with BuddyPress

The groups for the meetup website can be achieved using BuddyPress, a free social networking plugin available for download on wordpress.org.  While the plugin has a host of features, let’s take a look at the features that will be useful for the meetup website requirement.

1. Group Creation

The most obvious feature useful in this context is that of group creation. This feature can be used to create a group of choice. For example, you can create a group for Amateur Photographers using this feature. A group can be made public, private or hidden based on your requirement. You can also choose which group members can send invitations to others.

2. Notifications

Users will get notifications of relevant activities in their toolbar with this feature. This will be especially important to get notifications of events that are organized in a particular group of which the user is a part.

3. Activity Streams

Just like Facebook and Twitter, the activity streams features gives constant feeds about the latest discussions and activities of other group members. While not a very important feature, it could come in handy for discussions about upcoming events.

Adding Events with Event Espresso

  • The next step would be to create events that group members can sign up for. The listed events will primarily be organized offline but not necessarily. Creation of events on the meetup based event website can be done with Event Espresso.
  • Event Espresso is an event listings plugin in WordPress with a substantial list of features and add-ons to go with it. Due to its scalable nature it is one of the most popular event based plugin in WordPress.
  • At this juncture, we would require an option using which an admin can create an event and assign groups created in BuddyPress to these events.
  • While Event Espresso provides an option to create an event, it has not been integrated  with BuddyPress hence to be able to associate events with groups a bit of customization would be required to display BuddyPress groups in a meta box on the events page at the back end.
  • When an event is saved or published the groups associated with the event will be saved as event meta.
  • On the events page, a check will be made to see if a particular logged in member is a member of groups associated with the event. Based on this the registration page will be displayed to the end user.

Displaying Events with Events Calendar Add-on for Event Espresso

While the last step in this process is simple in terms of implementation it is an important one as it serves as a reference guide for events and will be used by group members. The Event Calendar add-on for Event Espresso can be used to display the calendar of events to group members. Such a calendar would make it easier for members to go through and register for upcoming events.

So that was about the what, why, and how of a meetup based event website. In this post, I have highlighted the main points pertaining to the meetup system. Read our post on integration of BuddyPress and Event Espresso if you have liked the idea and are interested in the implementation of the website.

Images by freepik

Exploring The Events Calendar Plugin by Modern Tribe

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Calendar-Plugin-WordPressSometimes opinion is clouded by assumption. You tend to think something is suitable when it’s not. Just because you’ve heard so much about it. Then everyone’s using it, so you’d be crazy not to use it. And then since you’re using it, you start recommending it. But that’s plain silly!

For example when someone says events, I immediately think of Event Espresso, and I recommend it quite often. Now, Event Espresso is undoubtedly a great plugin. At WisdmLabs we work a lot with it. But it might not be the apt plugin for certain scenarios.

One such scenario helped me discover the Events Calendar plugin by Modern Tribe. I was looking for an events listing plugin and the Events Calendar fit the bill.

The Events Calendar Plugin

The Events Calendar plugin is an event management plugin. It helps you create and list events. You’ll find the plugin in the WordPress repository. If the 200,000 installs don’t impress you, I’m sure the fact that WordPress biggies Mark Jaquith and Pippin Williamson have audited and reviewed the plugin will surely grab your attention.

It certainly grabbed my attention.

And set up my expectations too. I expected this plugin to be no less than awesome.

I evaluate a plugin based on 3 factors:

  1. The settings
  2. The UI
  3. The Code

These are awesomeness evaluation factors. The features of the plugin are covered by these as well, and they’ll help me get a fair idea of the workings and offerings of a plugin.

So let’s take a look at what the Events Calendar plugin had to offer.

#1 The Events Calendar: The Settings

The settings are options a plugin provides in WordPress’ admin panel. And the settings experience is triggered when you activate the plugin.

When you activate the Events Calendar plugin, it guides you. I like that. There are links to tutorials, faqs and user guides right on the ‘Welcome’ page. There is an explicit ‘Help’ menu as well. It provides you a link to the plugin’s hooks and filters and an option to contact Modern Tribe for support as well- Perfect!

The settings interface is easy to follow because it is inline with the default settings interface provided by WordPress. That is to say, if you know how to create a ‘post’, you’ll know how to create an ‘event’.

the-events-calendar-plugin

The Events Calendar is crafted the WordPress way

This stems from the fact that the Events Calendar plugin adds events, venues and event organizers, as custom post types. And provides custom taxonomies- tags and categories- for events.

The general settings option provide you a way to personalize event display, and default event settings. Each event you create, can be linked to venues and event organizers, and can be categorized and tagged.

If you’re tired of creating events through the admin panel, there is an option to import events as a CSV file.

Sounds good!

A limitation I’m sure you’ll notice right away is the single option to set the date and time for an event. This means, if you want to add recurring events, you’ll have to go for the PRO version. Also, if you’re looking to sell event tickets instead of simply listing them, you’ll have to go for a paid add-on.

Highlights: ‘Getting Started’ Guides, Quick Link to Events page, Admin Bar Menu

Awesomeness Scale: 4/5

#2 The Events Calendar: The UI

The Events Calendar plugin gets a +1 for the user interface. The plugin’s UI- the calendar and the single event page- is clean and elegant.

On the ‘Events’ page, a user can view events by the month, or date or as list.

the-events-calendar-single-event

The bonus feature is certainly the event search option, which allows a user to search an event by the date or using search keywords.

The PRO version has an option to view events by the week, by venue location or by event organizers. There is also an option to filter events based on the location. There is a Filter Bar add-on for additional filtering options as well.

On a single event page, event details- such as the event description and the ticket price, along with the venue and organization information are displayed. There is an option to mark the event in your Google calendar or iCal– pretty cool.

Highlights: Event Search option and Clean UI

Awesomeness Scale: 5/5

#3 The Events Calendar: The Code

Modern Tribe says that the plugin is “By developers, for developers“. And I’d have to agree. The code is clean, well structured, there are adequate hooks and filters and template overriding options.

To help you out, Modern Tribe has provided a detailed knowledge base, along with code snippets to customize the plugin.

Highlights: The Themer’s Guide to customize template files.

Awesomeness Scale: 5/5

The Events Calendar Pro Version

You can’t ignore the PRO version of the Events Calendar plugin, if you’re looking to provide advanced search options and recurring events.

the-events-calendar-pro-features

The Events Calendar Pro

The PRO version provides the option to add custom recurring events, which is certainly its USP. Apart from additional event viewing options, and location-based filtering, the Events Calendar Pro plugin provides advanced widgets for a mini calendar view, upcoming events, featured venues and so on.

But are these the only reasons to upgrade to PRO? I would say not. The premium support is certainly a solid reason to buy a pro license key.

The Events Calendar Add-Ons

From the several add-ons available the ones I’d like to highlight are Tickets, Community Events and Eventbrite Tickets.

Tickets Add-on

As mentioned, if you’re looking to sell tickets on your events site, you’ll need a tickets add-on. The Events Calendar plugin provides several add-ons which integrate with top WordPress e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.

Eventbrite Tickets

If you’re looking to sell tickets on Eventbrite, Modern Tribe has you covered. Their Eventbrite Tickets add-on allows you to sell tickets on Eventbrite as well as import tickets from Eventbrite on to your Events Calendar.

Community Events

To allow users of your site to add their own events, you’ll have to use the Community Events add-on. This add-on provides a frontend event creation option as well.

Summary

The Events Calendar is a well-built plugin, with a clean user interface and easy to use settings. If you need a calendar plugin on your WordPress website, I’d be sure to recommend the Events Calendar plugin (if it suited your requirements of course 😀 ). Modern Tribe is known for it’s great support, and you can see their dedication right away in the detailed documentation they provide.

If I had to describe the plugin in one word, it would have to be- awesome! 🙂

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