The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge Take SoCal by Storm: VIPs Turn Into Quivering Royal Subjects - Hillary Atkin

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.

It was the first stop on the first day of the royal couple's whirlwind visit to Southern California after they had traveled through Canada for more than a week, eliciting large, adoring crowds wherever they went.

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, "Mega-trends: Finding Opportunity in Today's Major Societal Movements" and "Masters of Social Media," in which actress Dana Delany confessed she didn't know what a VC was—and how she's come to love Twitter.

The grand entrance of William and Catherine came smack in the middle of a discussion on the benefits of London's Tech City, an area housing a slew of technology companies and startups, which panelists talked up as the nascent, British would-be competitor to Silicon Valley.

It fell to panel moderator Chad Troutwine to introduce the royal couple at about 5 PM. They had come directly to the conference after arriving aboard a Canadian Air Force jet at LAX, where they 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 their royal highnesses were left entirely out of the conversation, which continued for the next 15 minutes, and were not miked—although hand microphones were available. 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 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 double-vented suit was showing.

Seasoned executives--male and female--stood on chairs to get better shots in the crowd. People even asked others to take shots of them with the royals in the background, stuff you do at a concert. It was insanity, 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. What's next--Wills in Ralph Lauren Polo? These two know how to work a wardrobe, and a room--and charm nearly the entire North American continent in the process.

Their final appealing flourish to a three-day trip that took them everywhere from the Santa Barbara Racquet & Polo Club to Skid Row to Sony Pictures Studios—flying home to London commercial, aboard--what else--British Airways.

Hillary Atkin is an award-winning journalist who began her career as a television news writer, reporter and producer at KOB-TV. As a broadcast producer at KCBS in Los Angeles, she won numerous Emmy, Associated Press and Golden Mike Awards for live coverage and entertainment special events programming, and then produced and directed biographies on Robert Duvall, Elizabeth Montgomery, Linda Darnell and Nicolas Cage for A&E and E!. She can be reached at hillaryatkin@yahoo.com.

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