It only took a few moments in the presence of royalty to turn a room full of high-level entertainment executives, new media visionaries and venture capitalists into a giddy group falling all over themselves, taking photos and video of William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
One person likened the scene at the Variety Venture Capital and New Media Summit at the Beverly Hilton to an audience of young girls at a Justin Bieber concert – without the screaming.
Conference attendees and panel participants, who included heavy hitters like Shari Redstone, director Brett Ratner and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban had been warned that the bathrooms and the patio at the hotel would be locked down beginning at 3 PM and that anyone who left the room would not be able to come back in.
That made for rapt attention to the panel discussions preceding the royal visit, which came in the middle of a discussion on the benefits of London’s Tech City, an area housing a slew of technology companies and startups, the nascent, British would-be competitor to Silicon Valley.
It fell to panel moderator Chad Troutwine to introduce the royal couple in the midst of the session at about 5 PM. This was their first stop after they arrived in a Canadian Air Force jet at LAX, and were greeted by Gov. and Mrs. Jerry Brown and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
The crowd immediately jumped to its feet as the world’s most-watched couple– even more handsome/beautiful in real life– took their seats on stage with CEOs of several mostly UK-based tech companies.
The situation was a bit awkward as the couple was left entirely out of the conversation, which continued for the next 15 minutes, and were not miked. At the end, Troutwine asked if any of the panelists had closing comments. Catherine nudged William’s arm, but he looked at her and shook his head. As we said, a-w-k-w-a-r-d.
It was then announced that everyone should stay in their seats as the Duke and Duchess made the rounds to several exhibiting companies that had booths set up on the perimeter of the ballroom, including Hewlett Packard and Qualcomm, which was showcasing its augmented reality technology that overlays a video or game over a photograph viewed through a smartphone. In this case, the example used was a photo of the royal wedding party.
As the couple chatted it up with the vendors, accompanied not by Secret Service but security from the State Dept. and Beverly Hills PD, the place turned into a papfest. People became giddy with excitement, being just a few feet away from the royals, close enough to see the sexy full-length back zipper on Kate’s asymmetrical lavender dress and examine her cream-colored stilettos and to notice the lining in the back of William’s suit vents was showing.
Seasoned executives–male and female–stood on chairs to get better shots in the crowd. People even asked others to take pics of them with the royals in the background, stuff you do at a concert. It was insanity, but without the noise–but with all the heat and light that the heirs to the British monarchy brought to town.
Whisked out of the hotel, they headed to their next event, at the British consul general’s home in Hancock Park, where they also bunked for the visit. Kate changed into a green silk dress by American designer Diane von Furstenberg, knowing full well that every outfit she wore would be intensely scrutinized by the world press.
There was nary a false step– wardrobe-wise or otherwise– as the couple traversed the Southland from Skid Row to Santa Barbara, delivering good cheer and raising millions of dollars in several charitable endeavors, including the $4,000 a pop polo match, where, true to the storybook nature of the entire endeavor, Prince William’s team won the Tiffany trophy.
The future king of England showed his sense of humor at the star-studded, black tie– although no one told J. Lo not to wear that sequined green cut-out disaster of a dress—Brits to Watch BAFTA event at downtown LA’s Belasco Theater. William opened his speech by thinking Colin Firth for giving him the line “I have a voice” and then went on to call for lights, camera, action as stars like Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand and Jennifer Garner jockeyed for royal attention.
The lucky few who got some love were raving about it the next day. In what appeared to be the only unplanned aspect of the trip, William and Catherine personally greeted a crowd of well-wishers who had waited outside, a diplomatic way of saying stalked, the Hancock Park residence for a glimpse of them. One man in the crowd asked the Prince, “Being that it’s Southern California, has anyone yet called you dude?” (Um, no– but maybe next time.) One woman told TV crews that it was like they had sprinkled magic fairy dust and no one would ever be the same.
Certainly the children at the Skid Row area visual arts school felt the same way, as did the veterans and their families whose cause the couple championed at a job fair at Sony Pictures Studios, where Wills got laughs by referring to brother Harry as a low-flying Apache pilot.
Their final appealing flourish to cap off the 48-hour visit—flying home to London commercial, aboard British Airways, after charming nearly the entire North American continent in the course of their travels.
View all photos of The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge at the Variety Venture Capital and New Media Summit at the Beverly Hilton.
