SESSION DESCRIPTION

This session demystified the practices of “Verbal Judo,” a gentle yet powerful method of persuasion that helps you avoid, resolve, and manage potential conflict when interfacing with your audience and community members during your concert series.

Verbal Judo teaches us how to listen and speak more effectively, engaging people through empathy and using proven strategies that allow us to successfully communicate, resulting in positive behavior outcomes and resolving issues before escalation.

The last 30 minutes included discussion of specific applicable scenarios for outdoor concerts.

Please note that this training was not recorded.

RESOURCES

TAC Card Template (PDF)

1-Day Filled Out Manual 2026 (PDF)

PRESENTER

Kevin Price was born in San Mateo and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He graduated from De Anza High School in El Sobrante, California, and attended Eastern Oregon University. He worked for the U.S. Forest Service on a Hot Shot fire crew for six years and had a 34-year career with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (ORPD). Kevin was introduced to Verbal Judo in 1990 while employed with OPRD during a class organized by the Oregon State Police. During his years with OPRD, Kevin was both an internal and external Verbal Judo trainer for over 20 years. In 2017, Kevin started working part-time for the Verbal Judo Institute.

He has also served in the California and Oregon National Guard and was a supervisor for the Moda Center, past SOLVE board member and chair, Friends of the Columbia Gorge board member, Land Trust board chairperson, and Oregon Parks Forever board chairperson. Kevin is an avid golfer.

 

From the Verbal Judo website: The essence of Verbal Judo is to influence others to come around to your way of thinking and is best defined as a gentle yet powerful way of persuasion that helps us to avoid, resolve and manage resistance by using presence and words, whether to resolve conflict or to close a deal with a customer.

What differentiates Verbal Judo from other communication systems is that it offers practical solutions that work when people are under pressure. It provides techniques and conditioned responses that have been extensively tested in the field. The Verbal Judo philosophy is that when you react, the event controls you, whilst when you respond, you’re in control.

Participants in the Verbal Judo program learn a new gentle approach to being in control of situations without creating stress, without frustration, and without continued conflict, whilst at all times treating everybody with dignity and respect, making sure that everybody wins!