Welcome to Benzie.Live, a brand new comprehensive events calendar developed by locals for Benzie County residents and visitors. This is a work in progress, help us identify what works or doesn't before our official launch in May for the 2026 tourist season.
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I am Dan Kelly, the creator of Benzie.Live.
If change is a given, can we influence that change, or will we let others decide for us?
I believe we can and should take responsibility for what comes next. Will AI bring people together and make our community stronger? Can we create web utilities that are not addictive by design like social media, that don't harvest our personal data, compromise our privacy or try to sell us schlock that we neither need or want?
Benzie.live is my first AI enabled project, a community calendar that aggregates events from everywhere in the county. Not exactly a revolutionary idea, just a simple human centric resource that helps everyone, residents and visitors, to have fun, meet and participate.
It's basically a subscription model, anyone can post 111 events for $11, that's ~$0.10 per event. If you just want to see what's happening in Benzie, it's free.
Visitor interactions are not recorded for sale, and the "stats" for each event are transparent. Event postings could be considered a form of advertising, and we also allow everyone, including local businesses, to add a documentary image to the regional slide show. For businesses, this could include real world pictures of their staff, location and vehicles. Aside from this content, there are no other distractions, no other "ads".
Since the 1980s, I've been exploring the convergence of technology and art. I've written software, designed human computer interaction and developed video games. I've been making movies since 2004 and in the last few years, reinventing the family farm.
All along I've been casually observing the advance of AI... perhaps too casually. In just the last 6 months, the technology has woken up, and the rate of improvement is accelerating. It's probably not an exaggeration to say that AI is about to transform our lives, our culture... everything.
The objective is to get Benzie.live fully deployed by the end of May, ready for the summer tourist season. It's functional now and is being constantly improved and upgraded.
We are inviting EARLY ADOPTERS - local business, non-profits, churches, municipalities, farms and residents to start using Benzie.Live. Along with posting events, we offer slide show upgrades and will accept any additional support folks are excited to make.
Rather than setting up as a non-profit and relying on funding from elsewhere, Benzie.Live is launching as a for-profit enterprise, because we want the direct feedback of local folks voting with their dollars. That's how we'll know whether Benzie.live is useful.