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.
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
World Happiness Fellowship
Where Titles Come Off and Humanity Comes First
The World Happiness Fellowship is a global learning community designed for people at every level of society—students, workers, community members, and senior leaders.
Because the future shouldn’t be shaped only by those with titles, but by humans learning together.
In this fellowship, a CEO may sit beside a teacher, a nurse beside an engineer, a student beside a government leader. Everyone enters the room the same way:
No hierarchy. Just people.
Why This Matters
Modern systems separate people by status, profession, and power. But the challenges facing the world—wellbeing, trust, meaningful work, and healthy communities—require shared understanding across those divides.
Research in Positive Psychology and global data like the World Happiness Report consistently show that happiness and wellbeing are built through:
- connection
- trust
- purpose
- belonging
Those things cannot grow inside rigid hierarchies alone.
What Happens in the Fellowship
Human Circles
Participants share real experiences of work, life, pressure, purpose, and hope.
Cross-Industry Conversations
People from different sectors exchange ideas about creating healthier workplaces and communities.
Leadership Without Titles
Executives participate not as authorities, but as fellow humans learning alongside everyone else.
Practical Impact
Participants develop ideas and initiatives that improve wellbeing in their workplaces, schools, and communities.
The Core Principle
Leadership is not a position.
Leadership is how humans treat other humans.
The World Happiness Fellowship exists to help people rediscover that truth together.
The Vision
Imagine a world where:
- executives listen as much as they lead
- workers feel valued and heard
- communities collaborate across differences
- success includes human wellbeing
That world becomes possible when everyone is invited into the conversation.
World Happiness Fellowship
A place where humanity leads the room.
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.
MARCH 20, 2027
Saturday Breakfast Seminar
Wellness as the Driving Force of Leadership in the Age of AI
Alphonsus Obayuwana, M.D., Ph.D., CPC., is a semi-retired physician-scientist and a contributor to Psychology Today. He is currently the CEO of Triple-H Project, LLC—an entity that helps to build and create happy workplaces by coaching management and employees. He has served inthe teaching faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the University of Toledo. He is the author of severalbooks on Hope & Happiness and many peer-reviewed articles on the same subject in national and international medical journals.
He is the author of The Edo Questionnaire- a twelve-item self-assessment tool that has made it possible, for the first time, to correctly identify who is happy, unhappy, very happy, languishing, or flourishing—with assigned numerical scores—in any given cohort. His latest book entitled, The Happiness Formula: A Scientific, Groundbreaking Approach to Happiness and Personal Fulfillment, was named “One of The Five Must-Read Books….” by Forbes. Dr. Obayuwana is also a retired major in the US Air Force (Reserve).
Has been married to his wife Ann for 48 years, blessed with two sons and three granddaughters. Dr. Obayuwanais a subject matter expert in the science of hope and happiness as well as the art of coaching.
Hacking HR Founder and CEO Enrique Rubio will close our seminar with a powerful keynote on Artificial Intelligence, Leadership and our Wellbeing
Enrique is an HR, Tech and Future of Work expert, keynote speaker and founder of global communities. Enrique is currently an advisor to the community he built, Hacking HR, a global learning community operating at the intersection of future of work, technology, business and organizations, with thousands of members of all over the world; and the former Head of Global Community at Transform, building a global community of local chapters covering every major city and region in the world.
Enrique is one of the top 100 HR global influencers. He was the founder and CEO at Management Consultants, a firmed specialized in Human Resources in Venezuela. Before Management Consultants, Enrique worked in the telecommunications sector as a Senior Project Engineer for Telefonica and several other companies in the early to mid-2000s. Enrique is a guest author in several blogs about innovation, management and human resources. Most recently Enrique worked as an advisor to the Chief Human Resources Officer at the Inter-American Development Bank.
Enrique frequently speaks about topics ranging from DEIB, future of work, HR strategy, employee experience, technology, among others. Additionally, Enrique designs hundreds of learning programs for the HR community in the form of events and short-term programs.
Enrique is a Fulbright Scholar, and Electronic Engineer with an Executive Master’s in Public Administration from Maxwell School at Syracuse University.
Visit his website: https://enriquerubio.ai
EMAIL US TO START THE SPONSORSHIP PROCESS FOR ANNUAL EXPOSURE FOR OUR MARCH 2027 EVENT
ABOUT OUR 2026 INAUGURAL EVENT
Alexia Georghiou is a keynote speaker, organizational development consultant, adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee, and founder of the Knoxville Happiness Coalition, parent organization of the World Happiness Fellowship. She is emerging as a leading voice on happiness habits for the future of work, helping leaders build human-centered workplaces where AI adoption, employee well-being, leadership presence, and organizational performance can thrive together.
Alexia speaks on the future of work, workplace happiness, technostress, AI adoption, executive presence, burnout prevention, and human-centered leadership. Her interactive, experiential keynotes—including Happiness Habits for the Future of Work, The AI Paradox: Reducing Technostress While Elevating Talent Performance, and Executive Presence: The Sweet Spot from the Inside Out—help organizations strengthen connection, meaning, creativity, resilience, and performance in fast-changing environments.
Author of The Future of Work is Human and The Future of Success is Happiness, Alexia uses her Happiness Habits Method, The Connection Meter, and her **V.A.L.U.E.S. Model—Vision, Action, Leadership, Unity, Engagement, and Synthesis—**to create measurable shifts in how leaders and teams work, connect, and thrive. Her work has been featured in MSN News, Florida SHRM Newswire, SHRM, HR Dive, and the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Alexia has delivered keynote talks and learning experiences for SHRM, SHRM Talent, the University of Tennessee, UPEACE, SIOPSA, and HR Tennessee. Through SHRM-approved professional development programs, she equips leaders to create workplaces where technology handles the automated work and humans do what only humans can do best.
"Your opening keynote sets the tone for everything that follows. It tells your audience what kind of event this is — whether it's going to be forgettable or transformational. Whether they'll scroll their phones or lean forward. Whether they'll leave with notes or leave changed." — Alexia Georghiou alexia@knoxvillehappinesscoalition.com 865-283-3605