March 31st, 2007 11:00pm

Where unconventional thinking meets daring enterprise, you'll find the 27 men and women who are bending the future to their will.

The ideas of tomorrow aren't being debated in committees, devised in focus groups, or workshopped at any corporate retreats. They're being forged by visionary thinkers who aren't afraid to suffer criticism, ruffle a few feathers, or go it alone if need be. These innovators in media, entertainment, politics, and technology know we're entering an era that's not only open to new ideas but also utterly reliant on them. They're already shaping aspects of your life that you didn't even know existed. So you might want to get to know them.

TOM SCOTT, 40
CEO, Plum TV

Perhaps you remember Tom Scott, one of the two "Juice Guys" who sold the lemonade stand turned juggernaut Nantucket Nectars to Ocean Spray for $70 million in 1997. The entrepreneur then bet on his home turf again, buying the island's TV station and in 2004 launching what he calls his second "garage band," Plum TV, a network that caters to ultra-high-end viewers in their playgrounds. "Vacation is an amazing time to reach people in the right way," Scott says. "People make major purchase and life decisions." Hence Plum TV's mix of smart fare like Open Exchange, a series of sit-downs with titans of industry, and upscale-lifestyle programming. Scott and his partners -- his friends Cary Woods (a movie producer) and Chris Glowacki (a former NBC executive) -- have already brought the network to Martha's Vineyard, the Hamptons, Aspen, Telluride, and Vail, with Sun Valley and Miami Beach in the works. And it's attracting the sort of A-list advertisers, like Volkswagen and American Express, that typically turn their noses up at local cable -- despite Scott's insistence on keeping campaigns regional. "People don't hand us their commercials," he says. "We produce things for them. I don't want to see an ad about a car driving down some road in Kansas. I want to see that car in Nantucket."