As I sit here at terminal 4 at Los Ang. airport, I needed something to make me smile, and thanks to a tweet by Johnnie Moore, I am smiling … and reflecting on the Applied Improv Conference in Portland last week.

Here’s the video first …

Hugging

What’s in a hug between strangers, between friends and family? This video is interesting, in part, because the police are doing the hugging. In the famous Free Hugs video, it was the authorities who tried to stop it.

The other twist is the gift of a free helmet to passing cyclists. In Europe, despite the huge numbers of people cycling, helmets are not part of the cycling culture. Would a hug and a free helmet change your habits? Or would it take the passing of a new law? Or is changing the head wearing habits of cyclists not even the goal here?

As I fly out from the US tonight, hugs between strangers and new friends were as free flowing as the words ‘YesAnd’ in Portland. I leave the US with many new friends and a heightened sense of who I am. One word comes to mind … ‘noursihed’.

Geoff