Guest post by Violette Calhoun of Easily Amused, a creative agency.
When a client asks you for a complicated site on a limited budget—and with a tight timeline— you might initially groan inside. Your first question is likely: can I find a quality solution that works within the client’s time and budget constraints?
Our team faced a similar challenge, and we were pleasantly impressed with how smoothly things went using Event Espresso for a recent conference website. Event Espresso helps create websites with ticket booking functionality—and gets the project launched quickly. Here’s a quick overview of our (highly positive) experience.
Article Outline
Challenge: Create a Beautiful, Reusable & Robust Site—On a Budget
A leading pain management group, National Spine & Pain Centers (NSPC), approached our team to create a digital presence for their annual conference. Every year, they host a pain management event called The Business of Pain Medicine. NSPC knew their conference would be an ongoing annual event, so they wanted a website they could launch quickly, then reuse for future conferences.
The deadline for launch was tight, and the budget was limited. So how could we deliver a solution to meet NSPC’s requirements—yet not be overkill?
Our team at Easily Amused aims to treat every client as an individual. So we carefully considered the unique needs of the NSPC project, and we planned the website to fit. This included using tools that were robust yet affordable, including Event Espresso.
How We Delivered a Strategic Solution
Theme Selection
To accomplish the design goals, there was not budget or time for a custom theme. Instead, we researched aesthetically pleasing and well-reviewed themes that would fit the client’s needs. We decided that Conference by WPLook Studio was our best bet to accomplish their goals. The theme is visually compelling and educational.
By using an off-the-shelf theme, we saved on design time. This left us more budget to focus on configuring Event Espresso perfectly—an area of higher importance. It also gave us additional time to help with another area of need: setting up social media for the conference.
Event Espresso Integration
The event management website needed to easily allow multiple groups of attendees to register for the conference. It needed to showcase medical speakers, display schedules, and provide event location info.
The site was also going to manage ticket sales, manage coupon codes for various groups, and play a role in helping the marketing team before the event. Using Event Espresso, the management team could smoothly organize ticket coupon promotions leading up to the event—without needing to continually go back to a developer for assistance.
At the day of the actual event, the Event Espresso portion of the website helped to manage check-in at the event. It also played a major role in accounting for the event—as it provides valuable reporting that helped the organizers.
Our client needed to start selling tickets in a few short weeks. And we delivered a website with the functionality they needed. A win for everyone.
The Easily Amused team created an event management website to fit the client’s budget & show off the opportunity for learning at their annual conference. Event Espresso was a tool that helped make this possible!
Future Use of Website
The Business of Pain Conference website is a tool that can be used over and over again. Next year, the client can use the same plugins and theme to manage new ticket sales. The site will function as an archive of events for past years, while serving as a valuable ongoing promotional tool.
Because we implemented everything in the easy-to-use content management system (CMS) with WordPress and Event Espresso, their staff is able to regularly make updates and manage the events on their own.
Thanks to great tools like Event Espresso, our client gets an easy-to-manage ticketing system—and this keeps them coming back to us for future projects!
In Summary
Our deadline was tight, and the budget was limited, but thanks to great tools—we delivered for our client. This led to a positive recommendation from our client, and our development team is excited to continue using Event Espresso in future projects.
Don’t take our word for it, here’s what our client had to say:
Working with [the Easily Amused team] was a great experience…They made the process so easy. The group was always receptive to my many questions and willing to hop on a conference call to sort through any confusion I had. They simplified the process for me, gave accurate clear timelines, and met deadlines with ease. Highly recommend them for any project.” – National Spine & Pain Centers
Want to learn more about how we launched this project? Check out our Easily Amused blog.