Royal visit to Yoomee

Yesterday we were visited by HRH the Earl of Wessex, otherwise know as Prince Edward and third in line to the throne of England. After tweeting on the subject a few people have asked me how it went and "Was it fun?

Well, the day started normally, apart from being accompanied in the lift to our third-floor office by two unusually burly characters. I noticed they had small ear-pieces, were carrying walkie-talkies, looked menacing and concerned. One guy had a nice scar under his eye and looked like he could kill me with his bare hands. After exiting the lift they followed me into our office and began to look even more serious. "This is a nightmare" said one guy to the other, "There is only one way in, and one way out...". Anyway, I digress...

Concerned that our office was looking a bit bare, Rich spent some of his morning putting up cool wall decals. Nicola also spent some time hoovering up birthday cake crumbs and Si spent time on Wikipedia figuring out the customary way to greet a member of the Royal family.

HRH was due to arrive at 1220. I knew this because we had been given an 18-page booklet from the Lord Lieutenant's office which detailed the Prince's every movement, painstakingly choreographed minute-by-minute. The day was scheduled to begin at 1030 with "Aircraft doors open" and finish at 1540 with "Aircraft doors close". In between, four counts of "His Royal Highness unveils a plaque" and "His Royal Highness to sign the vistor's book" and numerous counts of "His Royal Highness has an opportunity to retire" (which made us snigger).

All this planning when to pot, however, when the weather didn't permit HRH to land by helicopter at the South Yorkshire Police Air Operations Complex, and so he took a plane to Robin Hood Airport instead which made him 60 minutes late and threw the painstakingly choreographed plan out of the window.

When the Prince arrived at 1320, we were pushed for time so I met him downstairs in the reception area (rather than our office with only "one way in, and one way out"). The rest of the Yoomee guys slid down the slide to meet him (also choreographed).

He walked up to me with a smile and shook my hand firmly (I had bizarrely been told previously shaking Royal hands was a "No, no"). I had three minutes to talk to him about our work at Yoomee, and so I waffled on and he looked interested. I told him mainly about our work with kids for Aimhigher and then he asked a few questions. The most interesting question: "So, do these social networking sites need a lot of power...?"

After my time was up, I handed him a business card and said "Check out our website for further information". If you are reading this your Royal Higness, please leave a comment below.

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