The second section of our Mobile Marketing Life flagship event was dedicated to how mobile is transforming the workspace, and how companies are embracing the changing digital world.

Emma Cerrone and Nick Hawkins of Free:formers closed their presentation with a quote from John Le Carré: “A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world”, and each presentation highlighted how important having an agile approach to mobile has become to businesses.

Doug Baker, IT services manager at McDonalds, gave us some great insight into how the company had transformed from 1974, when it opened its first UK restaurant and “the most advanced technology was the ashtrays on the tables” to today, where it has embraced mobile to create a staff-driven IT infrastructure.

Focusing on staff proved a key element to the companys changing approach, with balancing the needs of users with the requirements of the IT staff crucial to making sure solutions were adopted company-wide, with Doug noting that his job as an IT director is “40 per cent technology, 60 per cent people”.

Ben Salama of Accenture focused on how mobility had been adopted by different companies as time had passed, with enterprise often struggling to keep pace with the changing tools consumers were comfortable with. While the personal computers genesis and growth was driven by its place as a business tool, mobile has been the opposite.

He also examined how enterprises could take advantage of the consumer technologies mobile was innovating. While connected cars are delivering solutions to consumers that enable them to access navigation and entertainment, their true benefit is the data they can send back to manufacturers and garages about maintenance and efficiency.

The division between consumer and enterprise approaches to technology was brought up again by Free:formers, who are helping companies to innovate by eliminating that division. While workers of all levels are comfortable with mobile as consumers, when they arrive at work, they change mindset, and that agility and creativity is lost.

In its workshops, Free:formers aims to encourage people to approach their businesses in the same way they do their mobile life at home. Neil Hawkins, one of the companys trainers, explained that “when you take people out of their formal structure, which is often a We cant do this environment, you open up their creativity”.

Well continue to bring you the events highlights as the day goes on, plus you can see what people are saying about the conference on Twitter by looking for the #MMLife hashtag.