cynthia fonda 560x411 Happy Birthday Stavangerexpats.com!

A year has now passed since Stavangerexpats.com first started providing us expats with a wealth of knowledge about life and living in Norway. So I caught up with Cynthia (left) and Fonda, the site’s founders, to find out how the first year has been and what the future holds…

What was your inspiration for the site?
The site was started by 4 girls, all with Norwegian partners. We had all experienced the same difficulties with finding things out about life in Stavanger (especially with the language barrier) and meeting people. Although our boyfriends were helpful, there were lots of things they just didn’t know how to explain to us, having grown up with them. There were a few websites already out there, but mostly these focused on tourist information rather than ‘how to’ articles based on experiences about practical issues like buying a house or a car.

So after a lot of research, we found our niche! We wanted the website to be open to all foreigners living in and around Stavanger, and focused on information that people would need help with if they, like us, had moved here without the support of a company. Since then, we’ve expanded to also include planning events, interviewing other expats and other info that people want to hear about. In addition to foreigners, we occasionally have some Norwegians who have moved to Stavanger from other parts of Norway.

What are your roles now?
Fonda designed and created the site and does all the maintenance and technical issues of the website, and we both edit articles, plan events, update the facebook page and the calendar, answering questions on the forum etc…it’s an equal partnership! We are always on the lookout for news and events in the local newspapers so that we can share them with those who do not speak or read Norwegian. We both get involved with writing articles, and we’ve also had to recruit more contributors to keep up with the demand for new info. We are always on the look-out for new contributors – either for a one off article or for a longer term commitment – so if you’re interested in writing something for us do get in touch.

Where did the idea for planning events come from?
After about 4 months, we realized it would be great for people to meet others in person as well as interacting through the site. So we started organising morning coffee meetups…and then there came a demand from people who were working for evening meet ups too. A year on, we meet for coffee every Wednesday morning at 1100 in Food Story on Løkkeveien, and for Evening drinks at 1930 on the last Thursday of every month in Martinique. It’s always free to come along, and is a great way to meet people and make new friends!

On our calendar, we also feature all the events that we hear about which are run by other expat groups or organisations. And if people know of, or are running an event themselves, we’ll be happy to work with them to publicise it. Events that we’ve organised this year have ranged from brewery tours to Sunday brunches – so let us know if you would like to promote your event on the site.

Do you do any joint events with other expat groups?
As of yet, we haven’t done any official collaborations but we’re really open to working with other groups. A collaboration would be great, because different people go to different groups, so it would really help people to network. For example, the Chamber of Commerce have links with people in business, so that would be helpful for foreigners who are looking for work.

Interviews with expats – what are they all about?
We thought it would be a great way for people to find out about what other expats are doing, and to help publicise the expats’ events, businesses and other endeavours. We’re planning on expanding into interviewing Norwegians too, as we also want to hear their insights on for example, having a foreign partner, working with foreigners, building a social network if you’re Norwegian but not from around here!

Are you happy with the site’s progress this year?
We’re really pleased with what we’ve achieved this year, and believe that the website is here to stay! From a base of nothing in October 2009, we now have around 13,000 visitors to the site each month, 85% of which are from within Norway. However, as there are 38,000 foreigners in Rogaland it does leave us with room for improvement! The site doesn’t profit at all, and we work on it during our spare time outside of work, probably about 10 hours each per week. It’s a fun website to work on and gratifying to help people find the information they need.

We’re also pleased with the positive response we’ve had from local companies featured on the site. Time Out Spa is a great example of this – they told us that they’ve started answering the phone in English because of the demand from foreigners following our article featuring them! This is great news and it helps us understand the positive impact the website has on our community. We’ve been lucky to have lots of positive feedback from our readers, and some great PR in the Rogaland Avis and even a mention on Yahoo.

What are your main goals and plans for the future?
Our main goal is to help as many foreigners as possible integrate and understand the local culture, by providing information and cultural specifics about the practicalities of life in Norway.

We’d also like to get more Norwegians involved in our activities as many foreigners would like to get to know the locals better.

Over the next year, we’d love to double our readership and also get some sponsorship from local companies. Sponsorship and advertising would really help us, so eventually we could pay our contributors and even have finances to organise bigger events. It’s been a challenge to get advertisers so far, as local businesses have had worries about the ‘staying power’ of a website run by foreigners – but we’re here for good and will continue to work hard to maintain the success that we’ve seen to date.

Because we now have a year’s experience, we plan to develop articles we’ve already written, for example seasonal events, with new knowledge. You can also expect to see more articles – on fashion, food, raising bilingual children, maintaining a car, selling goods on FINN.no, just to name a few! As the site grows, it’s always challenging to keep things up to date so we’re always grateful for input if you notice something which needs updating. As we started with foreigners who come to Stavanger without the support of a company in mind, we hope to continue to develop along that theme, maybe even offering bespoke relocation assistance in the future.

For now, we’re concentrating on expanding the areas that we feature – we already know that we have readers from outside of Stavanger, so we want to reflect that in articles. So expect to see more about Randaberg, Sola, Sandnes, Kleppe…and if you have any suggestions about the town that you live in let us know.

On a final note, thank you for your support over our first year. It’s great to be able to help so many people and to have built our own community here in Stavanger, from our many corners of the world!


Thanks for Fonda and Cynthia for all your hard work making stavangerexpats.com such an informative and useful resource. Long may it continue!

sadie Happy Birthday Stavangerexpats.com!

About Sadie Ramm

Sadie is English and moved to Stavanger in May 2010 with her boyfriend who works in the oil industry. After leaving her career in marketing to relocate to Norway, she's currently freelancing as a marketing consultant, specialising in helping small businesses with strategy and planning, website design and copywriting. She is making the most of the great outdoors that Norway has to offer, and has taken up cycling since moving here. She loves making stuff - knitting, sewing and cooking in particular. She's most often found out walking with her Manchester Terrier puppy, Nero.