World Happiness Fellowship is a gathering for people who believe the future of work must be human. We bring together leaders, thinkers, and changemakers to explore what it means to create workplaces where people can thrive through connection, purpose, wellbeing, and meaningful work. It is a place to pause, connect, learn, and imagine what becomes possible when we put humanity at the heart of how we lead and work.
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.
WATE LIVING EAST TN INTERVIEW February 2026 ALEXIA GEORGHIOU
2026 WATE INTERVIEW Mark Greig & Alexia Georghiou on THE AI PARADOX
2026 World Happiness Fellowship Speakers Elia Gourgouris, PhD & Kim Black on WATE
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.
SAVE THE DATE
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 andhappiness as well as the art of coaching.
The World Happiness Fellowship is strengthened through participation from global thought leaders across HR, AI, leadership, and organizational science, including voices from the Hacking HR community such as Enrique Rubio, alongside executives, researchers, and wellbeing experts shaping the future of work conversation.
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
Alexia Georghiou is a keynote speaker, leadership educator and founder of the World Happiness Fellowship. She is Chief Editor of Happiness Driven Leadership and author of The Future of Work Is Human.
In her live keynote, Happiness Is a Leadership Skill: The Human Advantage in the Age of AI, Alexia measures audience happiness in real time, turning an often subjective concept into a measurable leadership conversation.
Her work explores the intersection of happiness, AI, leadership and the future of work, challenging leaders to consider the human experience .
Trusted by SHRM, University for Peace Costa Rica, SIOPSA, University of Tennessee System, TECTA
Her work has been featured in MSN News, SHRM, HR Dive, Knoxville News Sentinel, NBC Miami, Nexstar WATE, ASSHRA.
2026 Event Highlights
World Happiness Fellowship
March 20, 2027 | Knoxville, TN
ONLY 2 PLATINUM SPONSORSHIPS AVAILABLE
Your brand belongs in the conversation shaping the future of work.
8 VIP seats
Exclusive media interview
Media coverage and advertising
Prominent logo placement
Year round brand visibility
Association with a global conversation on happiness, leadership, AI and the human future of work
Let’s connect. Alexia Georghiou, Founder
alexia@knoxvillehappinesscoalition.com
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:
The World Happiness Fellowship exists at the intersection of strategy, systems, and human experience; bringing together the worlds of executive leadership, HR innovation, and wellbeing science to define the next era of work.
