Quick Facts
Biography
Gunnar Garfors (born 29 May 1975) is a Norwegian media professional, avid traveller, and author. He has worked with broadcasting and new media developments since 2001 and has spoken on these topics at seminars and conferences to over 20 countries around the world. He strongly advocates the necessity of broadcasting as a distribution technology, in parallel to the Internet.
Garfors has visited every country in the world and is the youngest hobby traveller to have done so. On 18 June 2012 he set a Guinness world record together with Adrian Butterworth from Britain by being the first to visit five continents in the same day. He beat another world record in September 2014 with friends Øystein Djupvik and Tay-young Pak when they visited 19 countries in 24 hours.
He works as a consultant within new media at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) in Oslo and is president of the International DMB Advancement Group and sat one year as vice president of the mobile expert group of the European Broadcasting Union in 2008 and 2009. Garfors was CEO of Norwegian Mobile TV Corporation in 2008–2013. The company was the first in Europe to launch mobile TV services via DMB in 2009. In 2004, he headed the launch of live TV to mobile phones for NRK as the first in the world. He was one of the pioneers of a number of other innovative mobile services, i.e. the world's first personalized ads in a mobile TV service and advanced forms of interactivity that combined mobile services and television. Garfors also writes garfors.com, a blog on media and travel.
His first book "198 – My journey to every country in the world" was published by Norwegian publisher Samlaget in September 2014. He has had articles published in Afghanistan, Brazil, Germany, the UK and the USA. Additionally he writes a bimonthly travel column in the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Weekly.
Biography
Garfors is the oldest of seven children. He was born in Hammerfest in Northern Norway but soon moved to Naustdal on the country's west coast where he grew up with his mother Ruth Berit Stensletten Garfors, his father Reidar Magne Garfors and his six siblings. He has also lived in Havøysund, Førde, Dublin, Falmouth, Copenhagen and Taipei. He now lives in Oslo.
Garfors holds a bachelor's degree (hons) from Falmouth College of Arts in Great Britain and a Master of Management degree from Norwegian School of Management.
He used to play football for Førde IL in Norwegian Second and Third Division in the 1990s and was the team's top goal scorer for two seasons. Garfors played for Falmouth Town 1995–98 and trained with Plymouth Argyle in English Division 2 in 1996.