WORLD HAPPINESS FELLOWSHIP

WATE LIVING EAST TN INTERVIEW

On March 20, the World Happiness Fellowship brings together a dynamic cross-section of Knoxville — from C-suite executives to emerging leaders — spanning industries including healthcare, finance, automotive, education, nonprofit, and entrepreneurship.

This annual International Day of Happiness gathering blends high-level thought leadership with inclusive community connection, creating meaningful networking across sectors and leadership levels while spotlighting organizations committed to culture, performance, and impact in East Tennessee.

AI Is Changing Work — Here’s How Leaders Ensure Humans Stay Essential

Research from Shawn Achor (Harvard Business Review, 2012) shows that when teams operate from a positive cognitive state:

• ~31% increase in productive energy
• ~37% higher sales performance
• ~40% greater likelihood of promotion (leadership readiness)
• Up to 3× greater creativity
• ~23% reduction in the negative effects of stress

These effects are durable. When positive habits are practiced for as little as three weeks, gains persist months later — indicating systemic change in how the brain processes information, not temporary motivation.

“World Happiness Fellowship embodies happiness as a science, skill and tool to empower employers and employees alike to embrace simple actionable strategies together to improve overall wellbeing.”
~ Alexia Georghiou, Founder, World Happiness Fellowship

A retreat-style experience for leaders who need to refuel.

This is not another conference.
It’s a pause.

The World Happiness Fellowship is an in-person retreat designed for leaders across industries and disciplines who are carrying a lot—and want to leave resourced, grounded, and clear.

If you are leading through complexity, change, or burnout and you want leadership to feel more steady, more human, and more effective, I invite you to join us. ~ Alexia Georghiou, Founder World Happiness Fellowship

Who will be there:
Leaders from business, nonprofit, government, education, healthcare, and community organizations.

Come as you are.
Leave refueled.

Elia Gourgouris, Ph.D. America’s Happiness Doctor

Dr. Elia Gourgouris also known as America's Happiness Doctor, is the author of the #1 best-selling Amazon book, 7 Paths to Lasting Happiness which has been translated in 5 languages. He co-authored the highly acclaimed book 7 Keys to Navigating a Crisis: A Practical Guide to Emotionally Dealing with Pandemics and Other Disasters.

He's the President and co-founder of The Kindness Factor International and just produced a documentary feature film called For Such A time As This on the impact of kindness worldwide!

Opening Keynote; How to Effectively Navigate ANY Life Challenge with Resilience & Manifest Success & Happiness!

This keynote equips professionals with a framework for navigating challenges with resilience and for creating workplace cultures that foster well‑being, engagement, and performance. Attendees will explore four personality responses to challenges and learn to shift to a Navigator mindset, enabling effective leadership in any circumstance. The session highlights the power of H.O.T. (Honest, Open, Transparent) communication, the traits that define resilient leaders, and practical strategies for building inclusive, resilient, high‑trust cultures that drive organizational success. Participants will leave with actionable insights to strengthen resilience skills across their teams and enhance overall organizational effectiveness.

FINTEK TV interview at the NY Stock Exchange

Kim Black, Former Pwc Wellness Director, Founder Sage Leadership and Wellness

Kim Black is the founder of Sage Leadership & Wellness and a leadership consultant, certified executive coach, and speaker whose work sits at the intersection of organizational psychology, happiness science, and leadership effectiveness.

She brings 25 years of experience from PwC, where she held multiple senior leadership roles, including serving as Wellbeing Director for PwC’s U.S. and Mexico workforce of approximately 75,000 employees.

Interactive Experience; The Belonging Effect: Escape Room Edition - Unlocking the Keys to Trust & Wellbeing

This isn’t a lecture - it’s an experience. In this high-energy breakout, participants become part of The Belonging Escape Room, an interactive simulation where teams must “unlock” trust, and wellbeing through real-world HR challenges. Each lock represents a workplace dilemma: misfired feedback, invisible burnout, or an overlooked voice. To escape, participants must decode data, rewrite dialogue, and design rituals that build psychological safety.

Along the way, they’ll discover how belonging directly drives performance and retention: Gallup research shows disengagement now costs organizations $8.9 trillion globally, while replacing a single employee costs 50–200% of annual salary. Gamified learning increases knowledge retention by 75% (ATD), so participants leave with muscle memory, not just notes.

The session closes with each team designing a “Belonging Ritual Card” - a practical, measurable culture habit they can pilot within 30 days.

Learning Objectives:

Experience how trust, and wellbeing influence team performance under pressure.
Diagnose three everyday leadership blind spots that erode belonging and design rituals to fix them and prevent them from happening again.
Leave with a ready-to-use “Belonging Ritual” to implement immediately - and a business case to sustain it.

Kim Black’s Speaking Reel

Lunch Feature: The 15-Minute CEO Charge (Virtual)

Enrique Rubio CEO & Founder Hacking HR

Top voice and disruptor of HR, Fulbright scholar Engineer

Technology with a Soul: How We Can Leverage AI to Strengthen Human Happiness at Work

While AI promises efficiency, speed, and scale, it also risks deepening isolation, fragmentation, and disconnection if deployed without intention. Drawing on insights from global organizations and communities, this session challenges the assumption that smarter tools automatically lead to better work experiences. Instead, it reframes AI as a powerful enabler that can either erode or strengthen trust, collaboration, and well-being depending on the choices leaders make.

Closer and Host Alexia Georghiou, The AI Paradox: Reducing Technostress While Elevating Talent Performance Through Happiness Habits

Alexia Georghiou is a keynote speaker on happiness and human-centered leadership, organizational development consultant, and founder of the Knoxville Happiness Coalition, parent company of World Happiness Fellowship. Her book, The Future of Work is Human and The Future of Success is Happiness, has been featured at national and international conferences. Through her V.A.L.U.E.S. Model—Vision, Action, Leadership, Unity, Engagement, and Synthesis; she coaches leaders to align performance with purpose.

As an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee, Alexia teaches professional development courses on civility, listening as a leadership skill, executive presence and burnout. Her writing has appeared in Florida SHRM Newswire and MSN News, and she has been interviewed by the Knoxville News Sentinel and HR Dive. Alexia has lived experience as an executive woman in menopause. Her work, “Menopause Matters: Supporting Women in the Workplace,” has been featured in HR Pulse by The American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA).

Under her leadership, the Knoxville Happiness Coalition Academy is recognized by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for SHRM-CP® and SHRM-SCP® through self-paced online and in-person learning programs.

Alexia Georghiou’s Keynote Level Up With Happiness University of Tennessee Systemwide Administrative Professionals Summit 2025

AGENDA

March 20, 2026

9am-2pm

Summit 2 Banquet Room

Crown Plaza Hotel

401 W Summit Hill Dr SW

Downtown Knoxville, TN 37902

Please arrive by 9am for check in, coffee and connection time with other attendees

- 9:30-10:30 Opening Keynote Elia Gourgouris, PhD How to Effectively Navigate ANY Life Challenge with Resilience & Manifest Success & Happiness

- 10:45-11:30 Kim Black The Belonging Effect: Escape Room Edition – Unlocking the Keys to Trust & Wellbeing Experience

- 11:30-12:30 Lunch with 15 minute virtual CEO charge Enrique Rubio Hacking HR CEO at noon

- 12:30-1:30 Closing Keynote Alexia Georghiou The AI Paradox: Reducing Technostress While Elevating Talent Performance Through Happiness Habits

- 1:30-2 Closing comments/group reflections, presentations from our sponsors

World Happiness Fellowship Partner

World Happiness Fellowship Presenting Sponsor

The Fellowship is just the beginning. It connects you to the Knoxville Happiness Coalition’s year-round leadership community; where monthly academy offerings and in-person gatherings support leaders in sustaining clarity, energy, and wellbeing long after the event ends.

The reason I created the World Happiness Fellowship is simple.

Leaders everywhere are searching for a more intelligent way forward—for their teams, their communities, and the systems they influence.

The science exists.
The need is obvious.

What has been missing is agency—a way for leaders to apply these ideas in the real world.

That is what begins in Knoxville on March 20.

But Knoxville is only the starting point.

Leaders carry these ideas into their organizations, their industries, and their cities.

This is not meant to stay local.
It is meant to scale through people.

If this work resonates with you, there are several ways to step forward:

Join the Knoxville Happiness Coalition
Members receive access to an online academy with monthly SHRM-accredited learning sessions and a monthly community gathering designed for leaders who want to connect, reflect, and apply the science of human thriving.

Bring the movement to your city
Communities can license and host their own World Happiness gathering—creating space for research, conversation, and practical leadership around well-being and performance.

Lead where you are
Organizations, educators, and civic leaders can apply these principles immediately in the places they already influence.

The possibilities are many when the goal is community building and collective progress.

Together we can begin shaping a smarter future of work and leadership.

Because the next competitive advantage may not be technology.
It may not even be strategy.

It may simply be this:

Understanding how humans actually thrive

SPONSOR FOR YEAR ROUND EXPOSURE

Sponsoring the Happiness Event 2026 offers unmatched value for your brand. As the exclusive sponsor in your category, your company gains worldwide media exposure, reaching a joyful, engaged audience eager for positive experiences. Your sponsorship ensures high brand visibility across all event promotions, digital campaigns, and on-site activations, creating lasting impressions. With the sponsorship period lasting until March 20, 2027, your brand enjoys continuous association with happiness, positivity, and community engagement, positioning you as a leader in your field while connecting with audiences in a meaningful and memorable way.