Managing events online has quickly become the norm as more and more event organizers move away from sending paper invitations and handling RSVPs manually over email.
Fortunately, online event management tools make it easy for small clubs and large organizations to handle their own events. But while there are many WordPress plugins that can help you organize events such as concerts, parties, and festivals, one of the most overlooked necessities is having the ability to sell tickets.
That’s where Tickera comes in. It’s a feature-packed event management plugin that lets you manage your events on your WordPress website without middleman fees and unnecessary commissions.
Sounds good, right?
Five years ago, we introduced Tickera which, at the time, emerged as new event ticketing solution for WordPress. Fast forward five years and it has evolved into a fully fledged, feature-packed and powerful event ticketing solution for WordPress with aplethora of add-ons.
To say that things changed from the initial release would be an understatement!
How Can Tickera Help You With Your Next Event?
Installing Tickera is just like adding any other plugin on your WordPress website.
After you install and activate it, anice installation wizard will welcome you, providing a smooth setup process from thevery start.
I won’t bore you here with a nitty-gritty how-to tutorial on how to use the plugin, but instead show you some of the powerful things Tickera can do.
Create Events, Ticket Types, and Ticket Templates
The ability to create events, choose your ticket types and set up ticket templates are just some of the basic options available in Tickera. You can also set up the date and time of your event and how your tickets look.
Creating multiple ticket types enables you to set different prices, sections, have VIP tickets, etc. There are also some cool options for ticket types, like being able to set up the available dates for when ticket go on sale, set up the available dates for check-in, as well as basic settings like ticket quantity and price.
The great thing about Tickera is that a lot of these options are just that, options. You don’t have to set a value for each and every field and option. So, to meet the bare minimum, create an event and set up its name and start/end date and time, create a ticket type and set up its price and you’re good to go!
Let Your Customers Choose Their Seat
The latest chapter in the Tickera story is certainly worth mentioning as it provides you with the option to create stunning floor plans of your venue with seating groups and assigned seats, standing areas, tables, points of interest, and more.
With this option, Tickera raises the bar when it comes to event ticketing systems for WordPress, and event ticketing systems in general!
Tickera’s simple yet powerful drag-and-drop interface lets you can easily create floor plans and arrange them to truly resemble your venue. And the best part is that what you create on the backend is exactly how your venue will be displayed on the front-end,so what you see really is what you get.
Collect Additional Info From Your Customers
Knowing more than justa person’s first name, last name and email is a must when organizing an event, and that’s where Ticker’s Custom Forms add-on comes into play. With this add-on, you can create any kind of checkout form and collect any information you want or need about your attendees.
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From input boxes to radio buttons, checkboxes, drop-down menus, and text boxes, you can create custom forms that enable your customers to choose their meals, specify if they need a parking place, select the country they will be traveling from. Whatever information you need to collect, Tickera’s Custom Forms add-on will help you do it.
Checking in Attendees
Selling tickets on your website for an event is agreat feature to have, but there obviously more to do – you need need to check-in attendees when your event starts!
With Tickera, checking-in attendees is a breeze. You can either use your smartphone (any Android or iOS device) or you can use any barcode scanner device connected to acomputer running the Check-in Chrome Desktop app (which is OS independent as it runs on any machine capable of installing and running Chrome).
Also, if you are hosting an event in an area with poor or no internet coverage, you can use the Check-in Chrome Desktop app to download your attendee database and access it offline. Of course, if you are expecting a lot of attendees, you can speed up theprocess by using multiple devices for ticket check-in at the same time and there are no limitations on the number of devices you use.
These are some of the main features that Tickera has to offer but there is much more to it!
Tickera Theme Compatibility
One of the main concerns when it comes to any plugin is theme compatibility. With Tickera, you don’t have a thing to worry about as it is compatible with any well-coded WordPress theme. Tickera will follow your theme styling, blending into your WordPress website seamlessly. So, it’s entirely up to your personal preference and taste which theme you want to use with Tickera.
Payment Gateways and WooCommerce Integration
Tickera supports dozens of payment gateways, so wherever you are in the world you are pretty much covered with at least one of the popular payment gateways available in your country.
But the story doesn’t end there. Tickera provides full integration with WooCommerce via the Bridge for WooCommerce add-on. With this add-on, you can create and sell Tickera tickets like any other WooCommerce product. Pretty cool, right?
So, yes can use literally any payment gateway available for WooCommerce to sell Tickera tickets. But why stop there? You can also use other WooCommerce plugins to expand eCommerce functionality for your ticketing store.
Selling Tickets Online is Easy with Tickera
These few key features are just the tip of the iceberg for the Tickera plugin. There are many more features available via the 25 add-ons available for the plugin. And that stands as the best testament – Tickera is constantly evolving, we listen closely to customers and deliver new features all the time. It will be very interesting to see what the future has in (ticketing) store for Tickera, but based on the progress over the past five years, there is no reason not to be optimistic about it.
Note: This is a guest post written by Marko Miljus, a former WPMU DEV developer who has created Tickera, an awesome event management plugin for WordPress.
