Sarah Conger: Problem solver focuses on 'moving the needle' for VGM

“I love problem solving. It’s what gets me excited,” she said. No matter how much you plan for an event, it doesn’t always work out the way you thought and problems need to be immediately addressed. “My wheels start turning and I want to figure it out and I want to solve the problem,” she said.

There was never a better time for VGM Group to have Conger on board than when the pandemic hit in 2020. Conger, 31, of Grundy Center, has risen through the ranks of VGM, starting as an intern in events planning to becoming events manager and now is vice president of corporate projects at the large Waterloo company.

Sara Laures, chief people officer at VGM, said company CEO Mike Mallaro wanted to put together a pandemic task force in the early days of the pandemic and tabbed Conger to chair the group because she is “never afraid of a challenge.”

Conger said it was trial by fire as she put a team together to address so many aspects of the pandemic.

“One of the great advantages that I had here at VGM is that I do have the opportunity to work with a lot of different people and know a lot of peoples’ skill sets and could find the right people and build a team to make this successful. We spent day after day in conference rooms on what we were going to do and how we were going to work from home,” she said.

They worked out plans for employees to work from home safely and effectively and with the right equipment.

“We wrote and rewrote all of our communications that was for all kinds of different audiences all the time, our leaders, our managers, our employees, making sure we had their best interest at heart, which of course we do, but making sure that was communicated.

“It’s been a ride, I will say,” she said.

By June 2021, they began phasing people back to the office, but the task force continues its work, meeting to discuss local COVID-19 infection numbers and keeping on top of the national news.

A native of Grundy Center, Conger graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with the intent to be an events coordinator. It was a field she loved as a high schooler at Grundy Center High, where she was involved in numerous events.

She met VGM’s Christa Miehe when Miehe came to speak to one of her classes, and was selected for an internship at VGM in events planning. One of her first events to help plan was the 10th anniversary of the Heartland Conference, a large trade conference VGM brings annually to downtown Waterloo. She just recently helped plan the 20th anniversary of the conference, which took place in September.

VGM hired her full-time in 2011 as events assistant where she learned organization, planning and execution of events and projects.

Her role now is to focus on projects that “move the needle” for VGM, taking on projects at the corporate level or from a specific business unit within VGM that could use assistance to move an initiative forward.

She has been recognized by VGM as a Behind the Scenes Wonder in 2017, and was named to the first class of the VGM Women in Leadership program. That year-long program was designed to help women connect and educate each other. Mallaro selected her to a leadership team designed to make the Women in Leadership program permanent.

Outside of work, Conger and her husband, Chris, are involved in supporting Grundy Center school athletics fundraisers and events, and she is active in her church. She and Chris are the parents of a son, Mason, who is 2, and a daughter, Madison, who is 1.

“Grundy Center is my home, so I want to make sure it’s a great place for me to raise my family, and I want to make sure they (her children) have all the opportunities that I did.”

Conger cites fellow VGM employees Sara Laures, Christa Miehe and Jim Nygren, CFO of the company, as people who have mentored her along the way. Laures “has this incredible level of professionalism that I have learned a ton from.” She said Nygren has challenged her to think about her role in new and different ways. “Prior to my relationship with him, my thoughts were leaning more toward customer experience and making sure that our customers had an impactful experience when they interacted with VGM, and he really challenged me to think about it not only from that perspective but also from a financial perspective. It increased my financial acumen,” she said.

With Christa Miehe, who is president of Moxie, the marketing agency within VGM, Conger credits her for bringing her along from the beginning. “I worked alongside her for most of my career here and have just learned a ton,” Conger said.