New list

Hi Jeff,

Now, I understand what you want to do, which is identical to my "Passionate Minds" salon that Isabel and I held at a superb renaissance castle in France. We took the place over, invited some of our most interesting, smart, and fun guests, who are passionate (as without the passion, you can't get the conversation) and chatted away and explored the region together. It was the best time that people ever had by far. Us too. We limited it to 16 people and the castle had that capacity, but I understand your limits now on Little Saint John.

The combination that works best in this intimate setting are people who are:

Passionate and animated
Exceedingly smart and knowledgeable
Fun
Happy
Interesting to listen to
Really fun to be with and you will full enjoy their company.
Not dead

These are the people that meet this criteria and you absolutely would enjoy all of them. I deliberately put a good mix together, which would lend itself to provocative and intelligent discussions that would be way fun. They are all very good friends and I know them very well.

Lennart Green
Pablos Holman
Dan Dubno
Christof Koch
Catherine Mohr
Gerry Sussman
Nathan Mhyrvold
Michael Robertson
Ken Rutkowski
Christine Maxwell
James Cameron
Debra Berebichez
Brock Pierce
Yossi Vardi

I left some slots open for your own suggestions.

Please note that some of these people have wives/girlfriends, but I would suggest that wives/girlfriends be left on a nearby island, and can visit one day, but not stay over. Otherwise, you will get trouble from the wives/girlfriends who will want to come as soon as they hear what their mate is up to!

Every night, Isabel and I would pose an interesting, and not mundane question, that people would answer going around the room, which revealed something interesting about each one of the guests. Conversation would go on for hours.

Less structure is better in this case. You go out do some things, snorkel, etc., come back and have intelligent conversations around the dinner/lunch table.