SOCIAL networking and working from home are some of the changes that could affect businesses in the south, according to industry experts.

Representatives from businesses across the Solent heard how advances in technology could change the way businesses work and how they could respond as they gathered for Vail Williams' Solent Thought Leadership Breakfast event.

More than 100 people from firms across the region gathered at Southampton's Ordnance Survey building to hear insight from figures in local business and politics and network.

Tim Walker, Managing Director of Fareham-based Taylormade Solutions, told those assembled that email and phone usage were expected to decline in the next four years.

This would go alongside a rise in the use of social networking and video as technology shifted, the audience heard.

He said he predicted this would lead to more collaborative work both in the office and virtually by 2020.

This meant that different skills would be required in the workplace, meaning a need for people who could adapt.

However, he said potential stumbling blocks could be a lack of internet connectivity and cyber security concerns.

As a result of these changes Mr Walker also predicted "significant blurring between the work home boundary" and said business leaders were changing their attitudes towards working from home.

He called on businesses to look at their own organisations for the future.

Mike Gawthorne, chief executive of Serocor, told representatives companies needed to be more open about what they could offer to their employees.

"We're working longer, people are expecting to enjoy the journey," he said.

Mr Gawthorne said due to technology the type of work people were expected to do was changing.

He said flexible working was becoming normal and pointed to home working, which he said had in their experience proved highly successful, such as mothers returning to work.

The audience also heard from Eastleigh Borough Council leader Cllr Keith House who told of the council's transition from its old home at the civic offices to its new one in the town centre.