Fresh Perspectives on Real Business Challenges at Growth Exchange
A business challenge can feel very different when it is no longer being carried alone.
At the Greater EMC Chamber’s Growth Exchange: Business Building Workshops - Business Solutions Lab, business owners and organizational leaders brought real issues into a room filled with different experiences, industries and perspectives. Instead of listening to a presentation, they spent the morning putting that collective experience to work.
Facilitated by Jeanna Bumpas, the Lab was designed to help participants work on their businesses and organizations while they were in the room, moving through a structured process of DISCOVER → DISCUSS → DECIDE → SHARE & COMMIT.
Discovering the experience around the table
The morning began with more than introductions. During DISCOVER, participants identified experience and knowledge they could contribute to others.
That set the stage for DISCUSS, the heart of the Business Solutions Lab. Each participant brought one real challenge to the table. Fellow participants asked questions before offering ideas, experiences and perspectives, giving the person presenting the challenge an opportunity to listen rather than immediately defend an existing approach.
For Alexander Gartley, the value came from talking with people who had experience building businesses.
“It was really valuable to talk to people that built businesses … and just get different perspectives.”
He also pointed to discovering resources that could help him move forward.
When fresh perspectives become meaningful connections
The conversations produced more than business advice.
Evelyn Cayetano arrived knowing what she wanted to ask. What surprised her was how willing the people around her were to help.
“My biggest takeaway was how helpful everybody is.”
One of her tablemates even offered to personally help her after the workshop, turning an idea shared around the table into a relationship that could continue beyond the Lab.
For Mike Cook, the conversation at his table reached into the human side of running a business, including work-life balance and the experiences people carry with them.
“There was a true human connection at our table.”
He described the opportunity to have those conversations and encourage one another as refreshing.
Turning conversation into progress
The Lab did not end with a collection of suggestions. During DECIDE and SHARE & COMMIT, participants considered what they had heard, identified ideas worth pursuing and determined what they could do next.
That distinction matters. The promise of Business Solutions Lab is not that every business challenge will be solved in two hours. It is that participants can make meaningful progress through fresh perspectives, practical ideas, useful resources and relationships.
For Kimberly DiStefano, even the decision to enter the room with a challenge mattered.
“The win was showing up.”
She spoke about wanting to be around other businesspeople who might have insight into issues she had been dealing with on her own. Jeanna reinforced that idea: when one person is facing a problem, chances are someone else has faced something similar. Creating a confidential environment for honest conversation allows those experiences to become resources for one another.
An idea adapted for Growth Exchange
Business Solutions Lab was inspired by The Solution Room™, developed by Cathi Hight of Hight Performance Group. The Greater EMC Chamber is grateful for the inspiration that helped spark the concept and adapted it into the Growth Exchange experience, incorporating intentional table composition, a structured challenge process, action planning, accountability, relationship-building and Chamber follow-up.
Real Challenges. Fresh Perspectives. Real Progress.
Growth Exchange continues
The next Growth Exchange: Business Building Workshop is a Signature Workshop on December 10, 2026, bringing another interactive business-building experience to the series.
Business Solutions Lab returns March 11, 2027, with Jeanna Bumpas once again facilitating as another group of business and organizational leaders brings real challenges to the table and puts the experience in the room to work.
For more information about Growth Exchange: Business Building Workshops or other Chamber opportunities, contact:
Tracie Kamenoff, Director of Events & Marketing
Tracie@gemcchamber.com
281-354-0051
Greater EMC Chamber events are proudly supported by funding from East Montgomery County Improvement District's Community Development Grant.