Greetings and Happy Christmas from the Mother Country! I had the distinct pleasure of being invited to Buckingham Palace again this year. My last time was for the beautiful Diamond Wedding Anniversary of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. I met the Duke, Prince Philip when he was in the Royal Navy. He was investigating new Ship to Ship communications technology being offered by a company that I was consulting for. We struck up a great conversation about classic naval battles after I brought a book about the British Navy for him to sign.

He invited me this time to help with another communication event: Buckingham Palace was launching a YouTube channel. The first video was to be the Queen’s annual Christmas Day message and the Duke asked if I could attend to ensure that there would be no last minute snafus. Leading up to this, I had been advising his staff on the best approach. After having compared deleting an incorrect video on YouTube to putting toothpaste back into the tube, everyone felt it would be best if I was within arms reach of the Duke when it goes live.

The video went perfectly, despite three different people asking me to click the final upload button for them!

Happy holidays to everyone! Have a great 2008!