When the movie Back to Future was written all those years ago, they predicted many weird and wonderful things to be in place by now.

While some may not be here yet, some – as yesterday’s front page with the hover boards would indicate _ are not that far away.

A look at some pf the promotional material produced by companies such as Telstra in recent years predicts a radically changed world.

Even more so than it has.

If you looks at the signs, they are probably right.

Change in the digital now has been a constant for decades, but it has been happening now at a vastly increased rate.

The theme of Telstra’s promotional material predicts the ability of someone to do any job from anywhere, even consulting a GP.

Technology bring us wonderful freedom to do our job anywhere.

It’s one of the advantages of this region in the future where you can live our lifestyle and do the job you chose to do, rather than consigning yourself to the rat race of a larger city.

The smart work hub that Ryan Park and others have spoken about so passionately has great potential.

Looking at things from the perspective of a larger corporation, there are benefits in having workers in regional areas than trying to house a complete workforce in a megacity.

Well, pleasingly, the Illawarra Mercury team are already a part of this region.

Our crew eats, breathes and lives this region.

We are a part of this community.

Yet technology frees us too.

Once confined to an office, technology now means we can populate our digital platforms _ and even better _ completely build our printed edition from the anywhere.

So yesterday, that’s exactly what we did.

We built the entire edition from the beach.

We based ourselves at Stuart Park and had a lot of fun, pulling together today’s summer special edition with summer just around the corner next week.

It’s a tough gig, but someone’s got to do it.

Get online and our social platforms to see some of the fun we had in the sun and some of the visitors we filmed during the day.

You might be surprised to find out what Gareth Ward wears to the beach …….