NEW YORK CITY-Hoteling, co-working, telecommuting. The retirement of the Boomers and the emergence of Gen Y. The digitization of our tools and jobs.

The office is in a revolutionary transition, and Thursday's Worktech13 Conference at the Time Life Building here underscored the massive upheaval corporate real estate is faced with, even up to a few dropped hints that the office is less relevant than it once was.

In fact, Doug Marinaro, president and COO of office space provider LiquidSpace, says his firm has no real estate at all. “Every 45 days we choose a headquarters for a week,” he says, “and the money we save on real estate we can put to airfares.” He went so far as to refer to “the era of unbuilding.”

But just like the paperless office of decades ago, not everyone is buying into the concept of the office-less worker. In the midst of all the talk about miniaturization, automation and individualization, one speaker indicated that Google leadership periodically asks itself “Are we spending enough on real estate?”

“The office is going to go the other way,” said Adam Lutz, Google's real estate project executive. “The workplace is going to draw more people in.” He likened the trend to online vs. brick-and-mortar universities, adding that people need to surround themselves with “like-minded individuals.”

His attitude was more in line with the recent, surprising and controversial decision on the part of Yahoo chief Marissa Meyer to pull the plug on telecommuting at her shop.

Resilience was a keyword for Jones Lang LaSalle managing director of strategic consulting Peter Miscovich. Not embracing the concept of an office-less workforce, he did warn that the pressures on the office are severe and life-changing, and resilience . . . corporate and personal . . . will be key for workers to bridge the transition. “What if your company becomes obsolete,” he asked. “What if technology disrupts your business model? What if you can't find the right talent? No industry or individual will be spared the digital transformation.”

Not surprisingly, Hurricane Sandy was evoked often during the conversation. Indeed, it provided a real-life test of business continuity based in remote operations. “We were geared up to get operational fast,” said Lutz, due to ipads and iphones that allowed the company “to work from our homes or cars.”

The needs of the corporation—especially if it is an old school traditional corporation—are running headlong into a technological and social wall. The business model and the culture of that company have to dictate how, or if, you will scale that wall.

Consultant Diane Stegmeier put it best: “Organizations do a good job of creating flexible workplaces. But who is going to create the flexible workforce?”