Get a smartphone if you don’t already have one.

Like, NOW.

Having access – in your purse or pocket – to the web, plus your entire social network, is the biggest game-changer since we decided that personal computers in every home wasn’t as stupid as it sounded.

The shift to a mobile life is happening, and it’s happening screamingly fast. Tourism, travel and business overall are changing forever, right this very minute, but it’s hard to truly grasp what that means until you use a mobile device regularly yourself (hence my insistence that you go shopping.)

No, your expertise in checking email on a phone is not what I mean.

Below is the slide deck from my new keynote presentation titled, “Mobile: Is That The Internet In Your Pocket, Or Are You Just Glad To See Me?” (hat tip to actress Mae West.)

I gave it for the first time at the Annual Meeting of the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania regional tourism organization; they were marvelous hosts and I hope they found it helpful. Later I realized that I’d forgotten to mention two specific resources: Tom Martin on QR codes, and Aaron Strout on location-based services. D’oh!

There are short speaker notes on each slide, and hyperlinked sources at the bottom of the stats slides.  Here’s the direct link to the deck on SlideShare.