Bruce Everiss

Current

Proprietor at Games industy consultancy and website ownership.

Past

Owner at All Formats Computer Fairs
Head of Corporate Affairs at Codemasters
Head of communications at Codemasters

Operations Manager at Codemasters Software
Operations Director at Imagine Software
Managing Director at Microdigital Ltd
Managing Director at Datapool Services Ltd

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4 more...

Education

Life
Lindisfarne College
Calday Grange County Grammar School

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Recommended

13 people have recommended Bruce

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Computer Games

Bruce Everiss’s Summary

email bruce@everiss.com

Twice in my career I have joined a startup computer games company (Imagine and Codemasters) in the senior marketing role and helped each to become the best selling publisher in the UK in it's first year of trading.
I also set up and ran All Formats Computer Fairs for nearly 20 years and over 1,000 events around the UK and through many very prosperous years until the function of these fairs was replaced by the internet.

Now I work on my successful online sites whilst looking for new opportunities in the video game industry.

Bruce Everiss’s Specialties:

Event management. International marketing. Internet marketing. Corporate strategy. Troubleshooting. Communications: Internal, Corporate, Brand, Community, HR etc.

Bruce Everiss’s Experience

Proprietor

Games industy consultancy and website ownership.

(Computer Games industry)

November 2006 — Present (3 years 1 month)

I have consulted for a number of companies worldwide who are carrying out a range of businesses.

Bruceongames is a widely read and respected video game industry blog that regularly attracts thousands of visitors per day.

Artforums is one of a number of online communities I started. I run this hands on, developing the site and marketing it. This has further extended my knowledge of online marketing.
Owner

All Formats Computer Fairs

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Events Services industry)

1988 — 2007 (19 years )

Everyone said it wouldn't work, putting home and business computing together in one day retail events. But it did. After a lot of hard slog we succeeded to the point where many others used my business as a template for theirs with fairs taking place for many years in every major town and city in the UK.
I ran this as a virtual business, with everything possible sub-contracted out. This enabled me to scale the business up and down very easily to match the seasons and other market fluctuations.
Head of Corporate Affairs

Codemasters

(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Computer Games industry)

2003 — 2005 (2 years )

An interesting role, reporting directly to the Chairman and giving presentations to the board. I was mainly involved in corporate strategy, troubleshooting and our relationship with government and trade bodies. I was a founder member of the Computer Games Industry Forum which was overseen by and met at the DTI in London.
I was also involved in a successful effort to change the IP law in the UK to help protect our properties. This involved lobbying and working with our local MPs.
Head of communications

Codemasters

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Computer Games industry)

2001 — 2003 (2 years )

I came in and made PR a powerful strategic tool. I set up all the systems to simultaneously issue press releases worldwide in all the applicable local languages and created a rolling schedule of releases planned to support every brand the company owned as well as supporting HR, recruitment, corporate and local community issues. My strategy treated online and print seperately to maximise impact.
I was responsible for the tactic of having online community staff for each brand which garnered significant results. We also promoted the company website almost solely by embedding URLs in every press release till it became one of the most popular sites in the industry in Europe.
We had many events for press throughout Europe and the USA, territories where we had our own marketing offices. For other territories I worked with our agents worldwide.

I also ran internal communications and created a monthly internal newspaper and organised many events, both formal and informal.
Operations Manager

Codemasters Software

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Games industry)

1985 — 1987 (2 years )

Just after they started up I saw what they were doing and liked it so invited myself for an interview. It was a very small company and my responsibility was marketing and anything else that needed doing. Within the first year we were number one publisher and the Gallup chart showed we had over 27% of the UK market at the highest point. Once again it was an opportunity to be very innovative and once again the competition followed those innovations.
Operations Director

Imagine Software

(Marketing and Advertising industry)

1982 — 1984 (2 years )

Imagine were the first modern, professional publisher of computer games in the UK.
Much of what we invented became standard industry practice. In fact in some areas, such as PR and the use of home grown celebrity, the standards are now lower.
I was the director in charge of both sales and marketing. Our aim was to pretty much double turnover every month. When the UK wasn't big enough we went international. The competition followed everything we did but they were always a long way behind.
Managing Director

Microdigital Ltd

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Retail industry)

1978 — 1982 (4 years )

This was fun. During my accountancy training I read about the new microcomputers. So I begged, borrowed and stole some money and in July 1979 opened one of the first computer stores in the world. In Liverpool.
You can read more about those days here: http://zxgoldenyears.net/everiss.html
Another thing we did was to publish one of the first home computer magazines, Liverpool Software Gazette: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_Software_Gazette

We rapidly found ourselves overtrading on a narrow capital base so I sold out to the Hi Fi retailer Laskys and we put stores within their stores around the UK. Laskys were part of Ladbrokes and were kind enough to put me through their management training mill at Carewell Lodge.
Managing Director

Datapool Services Ltd

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Accounting industry)

1977 — 1978 (1 year )

On coming to the end of my articles in accountancy I set up a book keeping company for the partnership, they gave me some equity. The system we used batch processed on leased mainframe time and was aimed at medium to small businesses. I got the company going with a client base giving a steady flow of business. My first taste of being the boss!

Bruce Everiss’s Education

Life

life 1952 — 2008

I initially trained as an accountant to gain technical business knowledge. I then left, in 1979, to set up one of the first computer retailers in the world, Microdigital in Liverpool. Since then I have run my own business or been in senior marketing positions, so have learned on the job.
Lindisfarne College

1968 — 1972
Calday Grange County Grammar School

1963 — 1968

Additional Information

Bruce Everiss’s Interests:

My main hobby is SCUBA diving. I am a PADI instructor and have over 1000 dives. I am a keen traveller and have travelled very extensively, SCUBA diving, visiting the great art galleries, backpacking and just going to places to see what they are like. Motor cars have been a passion all my life. I currently own an old Ferrari and a Caterham.