Saturday, March 27th was a huge day in Victoria. The F1 Grand Prix was on, the Melbourne Comedy Festival kicked off, Apollo Bay Music Festival and the global movement Earth Hour coincided. It was also my 39th birthday which means I have one more thing in common with comedian, improviser and Spicks & Specks host Adam Hills … our age. Thanks to Adam Hills (and the audience at his Mess Around gig), my 39th birthday has been my most memorable so far. Apart from our age, Adam Hills and I share something else in common … a belief. Throughout his …

Over the weekend, myself and Marty Maher and a bunch of other volunteers stage the 3rd annual Aireys Inlet Open Mic Music Festival. Apart from being an absolutely outrageous success, it was loads of fun and we designed and staged it all without a Steering Committee (yaaay) … or a detailed strategic plan for that matter! Marty has grown and nurtured this event from a seed … an idea that Marty had (and he has lot’s of them). The core of that idea assumes that there are loads of musicians out there desperate to strut their stuff and play music …

I’m on a roll! My last few posts have been inspired by my reading and reflections on Impro. Like any parent, I want my kids to thrive, be passionate and happy. I’d also like my kids to learn to improvise … or maybe slow down the un-learning process that happens as kids start to fear failure, judgement and criticism. I was playing with my eldest son last weekend … we were building structures with shapes. I noticed that Griff wasn’t happy with the end result. We were building structures slowly and we were ‘judging’ the building process with each move. …

I have just started reading Sir Ken Robinson’s book The Element. From what I’ve read (front and back cover), the book is all about ‘being in your element’ and finding your creative potential in life. I think Laird Hamilton (Big Wave surfing King of the world) must be in his ‘element’ or his ‘zone’ everytime he rides a wave like these ones … hat-tip to Chris Corrigan for this link Cheers Geoff

thanks to Wordle for the Blog Scan design Here’s some links that I found useful over the past week … Russ Schoen Says YesAnd! leads to a new product idea – try saying ‘yes’ for a day and resist that urge of blocking offers that other make … amazing results as a parent when you ‘let-go’ of your own plans and ‘go with’ the offers that our kids make After a Sype call with Dave Pollard (about letting-go and complexity), he sent me this video link that demonstrates the art of Impro … in a musical sense Jeff Howe (Wired) …