February 3, 2015

Meet our #InternetOfficial Contest Judge and Naming Expert Steve Manning

By Verisign Blog Moderator

As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of .com in 2015, we are excited to partner with a stellar group of industry experts, who will serve as judges and help us select up to five monthly winners (for a total of 15) and the final, grand prize winner of our #InternetOfficial .com domain name contest.

Our panel would not have been complete without Steve Manning, naming expert and CEO of naming firm Igor. Steve is a prominent naming and branding authority and has spent the last 17 years leading naming projects for some of the most popular brands, including the Aria resort in Las Vegas, the "Cutthroat Kitchen" TV show, Gogo inflight Wi-Fi and TruTV. His clients also include some of the world's most iconic brands, from Nike and Intel to Bank of America and one of Steve Wynn's signature hotels, the Wynn Las Vegas.

We are thrilled to be able to benefit from Steve's expertise. Steve is passionate about helping entrepreneurs use company naming to define and communicate the values of their business. His opinions have appeared in a number of publications, including The Wall Street Journal and Entrepreneur. Of note, Time Magazine featured him for providing the "Quote of the Week."

Steve has a diverse professional background, having previously worked for 10 years in the world of television advertising and branding in New York City. Hired at launch by The Travel Channel, he spent six years helping to forge its image and create new programming. Besides working on countless music videos and commercials, Steve also spent time working for Cinemax and MSNBC.

We encourage you to follow Steve on Twitter @igornaming, as well as our other panelists. Most of all, we encourage you to make your big idea "Internet Official" and enter our #InternetOfficial contest.