Cumbria played host to one of the UK’s leading digital experts this week.

Nicola Millard, BT’s head of futures and customer insights, was in Carlisle on Tuesday for in-Cumbria’s Digital Business Breakfast.

In what must be a dream job for any digital fan, she heads-up a team of technology scouts and innovation hubs around the world.

Speaking at Tullie House, she gave an audience of over 40 local businesses an insight into the transformations that are set to take place in the workplace.

The nine-to-five hours we are used to are dead, and people are being empowered to work in a variety of environments - Nicola’s favourite being the ‘coffice’, a coffee shop.

Speaking about the latest workplace trends, Ms Millard said: “Social media is a fantastic collaboration tool but 70 per cent of social media roll-outs in the workplace don’t succeed because the people in charge don’t understand it.

“Leadership is becoming social and leaders are becoming charismatic connectors not command and controllers.

“Collaborating via email is a bit of a black hole. It is a good information tool but younger employees tend to prefer chat messages and social media.

“I have become sadly geeky about offices because I find them fascinating. The nine to five is dead dead, mobile phones and globalisation have caused this.

“I have seen innovative, weird office spaces, I went to Google and they had a slide.

“The average age of workers is around 27, but at BT it is over 40 so I’m not sure that would go down well.”

The event also featured a debate panel of local businesses. Allister Green, The Cumberland Building Society’s business development controller, Christine McGubbin from Hydrant, and Lloyd Volvo and Highest Branch sales expert David Martin all took part.

David revealed he had recently visited Sweden and experienced driverless cars, which could be a more realistic development than you might think.

They are already being trialled on public roads in Gothenburg.

Phil Ruston, from the Connecting Cumbria programme, gave delegates and insight into the state of superfast broadband in Cumbria. The event was sponsored by Connecting Cumbria.

In-Cumbria plans to host more Digital Business Breakfasts around the county in 2016, please get in touch via dan.mason@cnmedia.co.uk if you are interested in taking part.