‘Happiness’ author to keynote at WJA’s In the Know

New York--The Women’s Jewelry Association announced Wednesday that Gretchen Rubin, author of bestseller The Happiness Project, and Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman will speak at the In The Know conference next year.

Scheduled for March 10 at 9 a.m., the conference will start with Rubin, whose talk is called “The Happiness Project: Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun.”

After finding herself asking what she really wanted to do with her life and answering, “I want to be happy,” Rubin then decided to dedicate a year of her life to the happiness project to test certain theories and studies about how to be happier.

There has been a huge response to her project, with Happiness Project groups, blogs and personal initiatives popping up across the country. 

Rubin’s new book, Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives, which examines how habits can create a more productive and happier life, is due out in 2015.

Hyman will close the conference. 

Her company, Rent the Runway, allows users to rent designer clothing and accessories. While it initially started as a pure-play web business, Rent the Runway since has expanded into brick-and-mortar locations in New York City, Las Vegas and Washington, D.C.

Hyman also has been named as one of Fortune Magazine’s “Trailblazers: 11 People Who Are Changing Business,” Forbes’ “Most Disruptive Names in Business,” and Fast Company’s “Most Influential Women in Technology.” Her talk at In The Know is titled “The Material Economy versus the Experiential Economy.”

WJA’s In The Know conference has moved to new venue this year--Convene at 730 Third Ave. in New York.

Following the event will be the organization’s In The Spotlight evening event, which honors the WJA regional chapters’ Shining Stars and WJA DIVAS, the winners of the association’s annual design competition.

More information about the conference can be found at WomensJewelryAssociation.com. Tickets will go on sale in January.