Geoff Rodgers doesn’t really tell anecdotes, certainly not juicy ones and certainly not to on-the-record journalists.

Frustrating if you’re the journalist but understandable if you’re Rodgers.

You don’t build your PR firm, Rowland, from a one-man shop founded in the early 1990s to one of Australia’s biggest by telling tales out of school.

I ask him, on the occasion of his company’s thirtieth anniversary who his worst client was.

He responds with a line he acknowledges could have come from a Doris Day movie.

“A gentleman never discloses such information.”

But then, he elaborates.

“Perhaps I should answer this as Sir Leo Hielscher does when he’s asked who was the best treasurer he worked under: “They’ve all been good treasurers—some have just been a bit gooder.

“All our clients have been good – some have been a bit gooder.”

It’s a classic successful PR professional’s  response, quotable but anodyne, while also reminding you of his  connections. Rodgers catches up with Sir Leo, Under-Treasurer in the Joh years, and one of the public servant architects of the modern Queensland economy, every couple of months.

Rodgers mightn’t do anecdotes but he does scatter a lot of names through his conversation, from Don O’Rourke, founder of Consolidated Properties, one of his very first clients, to former Wallabies Captain Tony Shaw, a stalwart of Brothers Rugby Club, where Rodgers is currently president.

To be fair, Rodgers has met a lot of names over the past 30 years.

Rowland  has been involved in many of Queensland’s biggest corporate and government deals and developments since the early 1990s – from the Lang Park redevelopment to the Queens Wharf project and the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Rodgers  calculates the company has been involved in more than $25 billion in financial transactions.

It has also expanded its offering over the years, from traditional PR — getting some good publicity for your client — into advertising, brand management, stakeholder engagement and issues management.

And so, from his ringside seat, what advice can he offer business on how to survive and  thrive in Queensland?

His first bit of advice to newcomers: “Don’t treat us like bumpkins.”

“I say to outsiders who have come in, either from interstate or internationally, is that in Brisbane, and Queensland, you can get to see anyone.

“People will be generally willing and open to hear what you’ve got to say.

“If you muck it up once, you might get another chance but if you do it a second time you’ll get cut off.

“We’ll do it politely of course but it’ll be like the smiling assassin.”

And for any company looking to government for help to get their project or idea over the line, Rodgers offers the thought that “the government’s not going to just roll over”.

“They can help and facilitate things but you’ve got to give them a reason to do it.

“It’s got to be legislatively possible. It’s got to be in keeping with policy.

“And there will be checks and balances and KPIs that need to be achieved. Businesses really need to understand that.”

Conversely, Rodgers thinks it important for public servants to understand the needs of business.

“Not so much for them to roll over, far from it, but from a projects-delivery point of view.

“The issue of time and cost is always a big issue for business. And so, if it’s a no, tell us it’s a no straightaway.

“The costs that can be incurred going through the rigmarole and processes and even the holding costs over properties for example, that can get out of whack.”

PR man that he is, Rodgers is unwaveringly positive about Queensland’s future.

“There’s been an incredible evolution and maturation of Queensland business over the past 30 years.

“Although it would be good to have more head offices, I sense there’s a strong economic vigour at the moment, buoyed by the current strong economic conditions and the unprecedented amount of corporate and institutional and private capital that’s been built up over the Covid restriction period.

“And the winning of the 2032 Olympics of course.”

I met Rodgers in 1992. I was working in Premier Wayne Goss’s office where I had the job of liaising with the business community.

He’d somehow talked Goss into officially opening the new building of a property developer client at Morningside.

The only thing I can remember from that day was Geoff Rodgers’ unbounded enthusiasm, something he still has today.