The Duchess of Cornwall and Prince
Charles have opened the new headquarters of Meta, but instead of doing it
the old-fashioned way, there was a special twist to the event.
The royals were told by a
representative: “We know that you unveil a lot of buildings, so we thought
we’d do it with a Meta twist.” The pair were then presented with a large
touch screen so that they could unveil a virtual plaque that commemorated the
opening of the headquarters. After they pressed a large button, a white
cloth fell away to unveil the realistic-looking plaque that bore both of their
names.
The future King and Queen were
then shown around the building which will be home to 5,000 workstations for
engineers working on Instagram, as well as the Reality Labs and Workplace.
Camilla was then introduced to
four women who volunteer as admins for a Facebook group connecting parents and
families, before going on to film a video for her own book group, The
Reading Room.
She then reunited with her
husband, who had been at virtual reality events, and the pair were shown
an Instagram filter that will be rolled out for the Queen’s platinum jubilee.
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The royals unveiled a virtual plaque
However, the royals decided
not to be too adventurous when they were given a VR demonstration with neither
putting the goggles on, though the Duchess was given some high-tech goggles.
But she was very impressed
when shown the StoryTime app, which allowed users to read stories to their
relatives who may be far away. “That’s brilliant, all those families
separated from their grandchildren,” she commented.
The final visit of their
outing saw them travel to Meta’s London Social Good fair where they toured
stalls and heard how the global community is contributing to helping those in need
in London.
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Camilla met some inspiring women
Steve Hatch, Meta’s Vice
President for Northern Europe, said: “We’re honoured that The Prince of
Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall are officially opening our newly built King’s
Cross offices.
“London is already our
largest tech hub outside of the US and our new campus will now be home to
thousands of high-skilled engineers. Our teams here are building innovative
technologies to connect billions of people around the world and help small
businesses grow, while also keeping our services safe.”
