JNUC 2014 - Feedback and planning for 2015

[cam]

Thank you to everyone who came to Minneapolis and made this JNUC a truly incredible experience. As we wrap up 2014, we'd love to hear your ideas for next year. Have a safe trip home, and we all hope to see you again soon!
cam

[roiegat]

Had a great time and will be back!

Btw, you should let the attendees know about the skyway system in the city. I walked on the ground level like a commoner for three days in the freezing cold.

[damienbarrett]

I know this is probably on everyone's list, but I must complain politely about the Wi-Fi network. I know that the Guthrie's network wasn't designed for 4000+ devices (1300 people x 2.5 devices each), and I know that JAMF probably supplemented it with extra wireless tech, but it wasn't enough. Other conferences have managed to solve this problem (PSU MacAdmins and MacTech come to mind), and there are professional solutions that exist that can be temporarily brought in for an event and then removed. If you'd like, I can refer you to a network consultant acquaintance of mine that has intimate knowledge of wireless networks and building out for conferences.

[kenergy]

60 minutes between sessions was too long. I would have preferred more tracks instead of so much free time.

[roiegat]

I agree on the wifi issue as well. I ended up using my iPhone hotspot. Already blew through my 10 gig limit this week.

Also, I did notice on a couple presentations that text on screenshot was a little hard to read. Not sure if they could implement a zoom feature in the presentation.

On that note, will there be a central place to grab all the files from the sessions? Looking for the deck slides from the sessions I wasn't able to attend to maximize my knowledge.

[mm2270]

In general I'm in agreement with the Wi-Fi issue and also the amount of time (in most cases) between the sessions. 30 minutes between sessions to allow attendees to get something to eat/drink, use the restrooms and such should be sufficient, but maybe that was calculated based on the 1300+ attendees. It can be useful for chatting and networking, but I did feel at a few moments that the time between the sessions dragged a bit.

I also felt there could have been a few more advanced sessions. I counted only 5 across the 3 days, compared to 19 intermediate and 9 beginner ones. I realize that some of this depends on the user community coming forth with advanced session topics, but maybe JAMF could fill in with one or two additional ones if the community doesn't.

All that said, it was a great conference, and wouldn't have missed it. Thanks JAMF!

[dmollner]

First of all, great conference and great venue. The Guthrie staff were superb and the food was very good. Felt a little spoiled given that there was no registration fee to speak of. So thank you for that!

Connectivity was a major problem, especially for those of us who are expected to be reachable for our jobs during the conference. Wi-fi was unusable and the cellular black hole that parts of the Guthrie tend to be did not give me much when it comes to using a mobile hotspot.

One hour between sessions was a bit much, but I did find the 2 hours for lunch to be great for eating, networking, getting a little exercise or visiting the support area. There were a few times that I would have liked to be in two sessions at once. Maybe it would be possible to shorten the breaks and squeeze in a 5th session each day in order to maximize total JAMF intake?

[stevewood]

I'll throw my +1 in on the wi-fi issue.

As far as @mm2270 comment about sessions, might I suggest JAMF put out a "Call for speakers" as early as June or so. Or perhaps a "Call for ideas" to grab the topics that most interest the Nation. As a speaker this year, I chose my topic based solely on what I felt was a need in the community. Not having to gaze into a crystal ball to guess what the community wants would be nice. Then perhaps we could construct sessions on that topic that hit all three levels: basic, intermediate and advanced.

It was another mind blowing conference, and I look forward to next year. And a vote to stay at the Guthrie, even if it means capping at a maximum number of attendees.

Thanks JAMF!

[damienbarrett]

I agree with Steve Wood about the session topics. This was my 3rd JNUC while it was a great and fun networking event, I found that my knowledge take-away was not as significant as in the past. Some of the "Intermediate" sessions were actually beginner and some of the "Advanced" sessions has zero practical application to my environment. So I was left with "Beginner" sessions that were often JumpStart reviews or Intermediate sessions that covered information better suited for beginners.

I would have liked to see a session on managing AppleTVs with Casper (yes, I know it's limited but it could have also included peer-to-peer Airplay, etc.). I would also liked to have seen a session on the rise of Adware and malware on the OS X platform and some of the best practices for training users and keeping our platform clear of this rising scourge.

Still a great conference.

[nessts]

seems like we could do some scripting classes, basic unix stuff to advanced unix stuff file system permissions, command line, ssh to remote machines for debugging imaging issues, Launch Daemon creation, to help a lot of what we see as every day questions lately are around basic scripting stuff. Problem with that is you then get into the problem of what to teach, bash, perl, python, etc. then how to edit with something good (according to an old guy) like vi which is always there and always works, or some graphical tool that can introduce random invisible characters when cutting and pasting and does not always exist on every machine.
I would love to sit with Rich Trouton and see how he reverse engineers Apple stuff

[Maclete14]

I have to agree with connectivity. We are techies and we need our fix, even if it is real work we need to do.

The conference was great. For me as a JAMF Noob in the enterprise, I would like to see a few more enterprise related topics along with step by step setups. There was only one session that did this. Also, if you have a session thats only going to be Q&A can you please make sure its in the description?

[KCH080208]

I ditto what @nessts said, also anything on keychains would be very helpful as well as printers and authentication

[mpermann]

Thanks for a great conference! I agree with what others have said regarding the problems with WiFi and the 1 hour between sessions being too long. It would be great if you could squeeze in an additional session for the first two days of the conference. I did miss watching people play Mario Cart on the Wurtele Thrust Stage stage at lunch though.

[jcurrin]

I will add a +1 for Wi-Fi issues as well. Problems only got worse when we all started tethering. MacTechs did a great job supplementing the wifi in previous years.

As for sessions, I'd love to see more advanced sessions, a shorter break in between sessions, so that we could fit a few more sessions in.

But all in all, you guys did a great job! Food, sessions, and activities were awesome. I am also glad it's free to attend, so thank you!

[joshuasee]

Addressing Wi-Fi while striving to avoid a metoo response:
Consider adding hardwire connections to the 8th floor classrooms, or opening port 22 so administrators can administrate in a low bandwidth fashion.

[franton]

Again another one chiming in on the wifi issues. I wasn't so bothered about the lack of connectivity but it did play merry hell with the iBeacon demonstrations and I really only got to see that work on the last day.

I was quite happy with the general format although i'd like to see more caffeine present! I was pretty much relying on that to keep going as (and this is the day after), I still haven't adjusted from UK time to Central. Crashing at 8pm every night was not a good thing.

On the whole my experiences were very positive, especially for my first JNUC visit (all @bentoms fault of course :) ). Pleased to have met an awful lot of very helpful and cool people. Special shout outs go to people like @donmontalvo @bentoms Adam Codega, Erin, Mia, Rob Potvin and Drew Duggan of JAMF. And Chip, obviously ;)

[damienbarrett]

I'd like to see a Spotify list of all the songs (or as many as can be found in Spotify's database) played at each JNUC. There were some really great tunes selected by someone at JAMF. I snagged a few with Shazam but there were many many I missed.

[Brad_G]

I'll throw in my .02 and agree with some of the previous comments. Wi-Fi was an issue. The breaks between sessions were a little long. Having a bit longer time during lunch was good as it allowed time to network and also some mini events.

The Guthrie is a great venue and I thought things went well. The additional lunch locations also helped alleviate some congestion that happened in the past. The First Avenue Club was a great atmosphere for our group gathering.

While there were some great take aways from the conference that I'm excited to try, there could have been a few more advanced sessions. Those I attended were very good (maybe not always applicable to my environment but shed light on some possibilities for future projects). In the past there had been some panel discussions with Q & A after. Did I miss them this year?

Already looking forward to JNUC 2015!

[mm2270]

Hey @damienbarrett - check it out, compliments of Mike Paul @ JAMF- https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=5739#responseChild70961

[emily]

+1 Wifi woes

Maybe there can be a clarification between presentations and sessions? It may be an issue of semantics, but it's true that some of the advanced topics were so particular to the environment that they may be interesting, but not practical for other attendees. Maybe the JNUC, now that it's getting so large, can go for poster sessions and presentations that supplement topics that have a broader reach. Something that AMS and SMT (American Musicological Society and Society for Music Theory [I'm a PhD student in music theory on the side]) do are take more specialized topics and have them happen in more informal sessions in the evenings, after dinner, like 7:30-ish. Maybe it would take away from some socializing for some people, but it would put like-minded people with potentially more similar environments and interests together and smaller gatherings on specialized topics can be incredibly valuable. Also, if folks suggest topics that are similar, they could split the hour into 15 minute chunks for 3 people (or do a 1.5 hour session with 20 minute or 30 minute talks) and then have a more open dialogue amongst themselves and with the attendees during the Q&A.

Also, we need a puppy station to pet puppies. I'd probably prefer kitties but they're not as easy to corral and more people tend to be allergic to cats then dogs. Some of us go through major withdrawal without critters around…

Another recommendation would be a shuttles to the after party if it's more than a 10-15 minute walk from the venue. If 1-2 shuttles went down to First Avenue and back every 15 minutes or so, it would have been much easier for folks to get there and back.

All in all I think JAMF is doing a LOT right with the JNUC. It was a blast. I think as JAMF and "Apple in the Enterprise" grow, the JNUC should grow too!

[tschaps]

As others have said, great JNUC, great in most every respect. And the Guthrie is a fantastic interim venue for JNUC until the Vikings stadium is ready... ;)

On the topic of the wi-fi, I sent the jnuchelp address the following in an email the other day:
...
...The problem is that the subnet for the Guest network is a /22 (192.168.200.0/255.255.252.0) which only provides 1,022 usable IP addresses. With well over 1,000 attendees and JAMF staff in attendance, carrying a geek-average 2.3 wifi-capable devices (I have three with me), I am impressed this setup works ...at all ...for anyone...
-----
When I was able to get a stable connection for a few minutes, I did a speedtest a couple times, getting about 15 Mbs download, not at all shabby, so my guess is that the problem is not so much WAN bandwidth as LAN IP availability. However, if you were able to get ~3,000 devices on the Guest network, that large of a broadcast domain might not work so well either. Breaking up the broadcast domains, though, would mean you'd probably need a bonjour/multicast gateway to make sure that all the Apple services worked properly. I don't envy you your task! But I know you've got the right talent to do it!

Thanks for everything!

[mscottblake]

I want to echo that the conference is great. I look forward to it for months.

+1 wifi woes
+1 break times
+1 lunch was phenomenally better this year
+1 number of advanced sessions

I'll also add that it might be nice if JAMF set up a designated space where we could meet for mini events after hours since the Guthrie is off limits. Not all of us drink and it seemed like all of the meeting places were in bars.

Adding an RFP process might enable different speakers with different backgrounds, and it might allow for greater variety in topics. For instance, people are all the time asking about printers and how to manage them, but there wasn't even a single topic on them.

[andrew_stenehje]

The conference is very well organized and well run. As everybody else has said, JAMF does a great job with the venue, music, food, and sense of community.

Wi-Fi was obviously a problem and I know you'll have it corrected next year. I'll also second what @stevewood][/url said about putting out a call for session content early on to let the community help choose the content. Personally, I would actually appreciate a little more session content from JAMF on new/updated features, little known tricks (like last year), deeper dive info about the product, etc.

I also agree with what @emilykausalik][/url said about breaking up the sessions. 60 minutes is a long time for lecture style technical presentations. Some of the presentations about processes created by users tend to include lots of details that most people won't retain. Those who need the details will be getting them afterward anyway.

Maybe breaking up the non panel presentations into:

1) Big picture overview of the real world problem and solution 2) More detailed look at solution
3) Q and A

Some people may not be interested in hearing the details after hearing that the problem doesn't apply to them so it would make it easier for them to check out a different session.

Another thought would be to break it up into multiple sessions, so start the conference or the day with shorter 15-20 minute sessions that give an intro to the big picture problem and solution and then later follow them up with a "deeper dive" sessions that go into more detail. People could check out the intro sessions to see what they're interested in and then choose which followup sessions to attend later.

Like I said, overall the conference is extremely well run and enjoyable. Incremental changes are all that is needed to take it to the next level and soliciting feedback is a great way to start.

Thanks for all of the work that goes into this conference. It's a great benefit to the community.

[Stubakka]

Wifi issues Time between sessions to long. No event app this year to easily connect with attendees or speakers or link to the content being presented

Not really a negative but just a note :This was my 2nd Jnuc and I made some new contacts however I still oddly find JNUC to be slightly more difficult to make new connections unless you actively put effort into it like I did this year. Perhaps it's the mix of so many new users and veteran users with people who already have a hang out group they hang with.

I enjoyed the sessions however I do feel there were more sessions last year and with better content.

I always look forward to JNUC however and will be back next year. Thanks !

[bentoms]

I've been wondering if the classrooms could be booked out for some hands on sessions too.

Other than WiFi, being the social butterfly that I am meant that I was happy with the gap in-between sessions.

For the panel that I was on, it may have been better to have introduced ourselves with some examples of our distributed environments & some challenges before questions were asked.

Also, an event app with maybe a chat/Q&A function would be cool. If only to save some of the running from some of the JAMFs.

[elliotjordan]

+1 on the wi-fi.
+1 on breaks between sessions being a bit long.
+1 on lunch being delicious.

[Sean_M_Harper]

Not to echo the exact same thing as the post above me...

+1 on the wi-fi.
+1 on breaks between session being a bit long.
+1 on lunch being delicious.

I would also note that the First Ave party was far better than the party last year.

I would like to echo what Steve Wood said about calling out early for presenters, as well as the need for a JAMF Nation type poll to see what exactly The Nation is looking for. This is after all, a celebration of the Jamf Nation users. I found myself presenting on a topic close to me, and while the presentation appears to have gone very well, it would be nice to be able to focus in on a topic I knew several hundreds of people would be looking for information on.

Lastly, I would like to talk about the EDU vs Enterprise users. While I tried to keep my session very neutral, it is very apparent that some sessions are extremely one sided in that regard (due mostly to the topic being presented). If at all possible, I would make sure that both groups are represented in any one time block, and possibly mark the session with some kind of icon to let JNUC2015 users know what type of session they will be seeing (edu vs enterprise).

Just a few +1's and a few ideas :)

[Chris_Hafner]

Alright... so

+1, need for better wifi (May I recommend Xirrus Rapid Deployment Kits, they're great for events where you can't influence infrastructure)
+1 for shortening the period between sessions

As for every JAMF event; the food, snack and caffeine (+beer) allotment was spectacular. It's so easy to become distracted and far less social when you're hungry.

Beyond that I thought that the web based signup tool was a good transition (having never attended a JNUC before), yet many folks changed tracks as the conference went on and didn't change what they signed up for. This caused a few of the conferences to be a little out of kilter with the venue though, not horribly. Also, if there was a way to associate slides, notes and media into such a tool that would be spectacular for a quick recap after the trip. Right now some are posting up their materials in a number of threads named "slides" or other generic term making them difficult to find as they are posted. Not that it's that hard. It just could be easier.

... and onto EDU vs Enterprise. I like @lucid772 idea regarding a far more obvious signifier and focus. Yet I find myself (Brewster Academy's Technology Coordinator) following mostly enterprise tracks regardless. Many edu's are very new to large scale IT infrastructure and simply don't have the same kinds of issues (legacy IT and compliance issues) to bring up yet. That will eventually change as the educational IT market continues to mature. I'm not sure exactly what I'm pointing out here. Perhaps edu focused tracks might focus less on compliance, reporting and mixed environments? I would love to hear thoughts on this!

Regardless, I'm sure I'll be back in 2015. What a great conference!

[DVG]

First off, I've been part of the JNUC since 2011 and I'm never disappointed. Great sessions/food/people/atmosphere/bacon/etc.... Even if I go to a session that has no bearing on what we're trying to accomplish, I pull a morsel of something I either didn't know or hadn't thought of to implement.

+1 WiFi
+1 breaks between sessions to 30 minutes
+1 lunch break was great, food as well
+1 Nation-tailored sessions, what issues are folks seeing and/or would like to see demo'd

ASKS
--Maybe a series of sessions (B/I/A)? I know it may eat into some of the additional services revenue, but it would be beneficial to see the workflows of some of the daily JSS tasks. Best practices on some of those menial tasks might be a lifesaver to someone.... (Scoping/Policy creation/Pre-stage imaging/etc.)

--Have we outgrown the Guthrie?

Thanks much and see you in 2015!

[stevewood]

One addition to my previous would be for better projection capabilities if possible. I know we're not going to be able to provide excellent viewing from the balcony or the back of the room, but even fairly close up the screens were pretty blurry. Not sure what can be done about that, but it would be nice if a solution could be found.

[emily]

That one may be a bit more on the presenter's shoulders, @stevewood. When we get those slide templates it gives a certain dimension, and I think the inclination is to use up as much of that space as possible. It may be a good idea for presenters to blow up text/terminal/etc. to make things easier to read.

[stevewood]

I don't think it was just on screenshots @emilykausalik it seemed to me that even some of the other text was a bit blurry. Of course that could just be my age and I need to go get my eyes checked. ;-)

[cshepp11]

Thanks for a wonderful JNUC. I had a blast!

I would be interested in longer sessions (maybe we call them classes - 2 hours long) that would be more "real-time" rather than walking through a keynote slide of a particular enterprise setup. It's great to see a an example of a successful solution in action, but I think it would be very beneficial to get down to the "nuts & bolts" and build/see a solution from beginning to end (with some editing of course).

Perhaps having a small ad hoc network with a local JSS and a few test machines (VM's) to use for demonstration.

I really liked some of the automation sessions and would have liked to see more of it in depth (real time as opposed to screenshots).

[donmontalvo]

1. Wi-Fi
2. Charging stations
3. Swag. :)

[benducklow]

I agree with @donmontalvo and many others but here's is my 'list':

1. Better Wi-Fi
2. Designated areas w/ charging stations
3. JAMF branded swag and other gizmos for puchase (I love tinkering around w/ my Geohopper iBeacon;)
4. Maybe some short, technical, hands-on sessions during breaks to go over certain JSS maintenance type tasks, tips & tricks or other interesting Casper stuff.

[nessts]

JAMF sponsored New Feature sessions might be nice. I would like to see some of the new features in action and how examples of how I might want to use them.

[EightQuarterBit]

+1 for more advanced "advanced" sessions.
+1 for more sessions overall, with shorter breaks between
+0.01 better wifi (no need to beat a dead horse. Everyone knows the wifi was insufficient. ;)

Lunch was better this year, but it was still very crowded the first day. Running it in shifts with an "early lunch" and "late lunch" while sessions are in progress would naturally thin out the dedicated lunch period, since not everyone would have a session they are interested in attending during the "early" and "late" periods.

Better publication of mini-events would be nice. If you went to the dedicated JNUC page from jamfsoftware.com they weren't even mentioned, and it wasn't pointed out explicitly during the keynote. You had to know that there was the extra hidden section here on JAMF Nation to discover them. The one mini event I attended had all of four people show up. Even the organizers of the event itself didn't bother attending.

What happened to listing all the events in the Eventbrite app? Sure I could look them up in the paper pamphlet, but that doesn't include event descriptions, and too many of the titles were cute and kitschy but devoid of actual information, or even downright misleading.

Having a dedicated location for presenters to upload their presentation and any related resources before the presentation begins, with a link in the event's description would be nice. Why should we all squint at a tiny, blurry screen when we are all carrying devices with us and can follow along? Even full-screen QR codes are simply too tiny to resolve.

[freddie_cox]

Jumping on the Wi-Fi woes bandwagon. I quit trying to connect after half-way through the first day.

Jumping on @Brad_G's comments regarding advanced topics. I went to all the "advanced" sessions and unfortunately didn't leave with much to "take-away" from those sessions that could be used in my organization outside of new Netboot solutions.

Also, more panel discussions could be beneficial. Could have discussions on Deployment, Management/Maintenance., iOS, Network/Security, Enterprise, Imaging, K-12 (Small/Med & Large) etc.

My social skills aren't as polished at @bentoms so I think being able to participate in these discussions could help build relationships more effectively than the keynote/lecture style presentations. Especially being able to direct myself a group of people in similar organizations or situations. :-)

[jmadlock]

I noticed that several participants were Technology Integration specialist from many K-12 entities. Many of these people expressed to me that most of the sessions were way too technical and somewhat useless to them. I believe the conference has come to a point that it can grow tremendously by possibly offering more educational (K-12/Post Secondary) sessions. Sessions that are not needed for the majority of participants that deal with the technical end of MDM/BYOD/One-to-One, but would entice those from the curriculum/usage side in K-12 and post secondary education. Possibly run the conference Monday through Wednesday for the "IT crowd," and then Wednesday through Friday for the Education participants. Naturally you would have a nice crossover of participants and attract MANY new partners and sponsors from the educational market. The use of Casper Focus and the power of JSS in the classroom will give educators and integration specialist a greater understanding of the broad reaching possibilities they have at their fingertips. This would open the door for several wonderful sessions pertaining to K-12/Postsecondary use.

Looking forward to next year!

[emily]

For folks that might want to present in the future, here is a handy guide on helping create accessibility in conference presentations. It's from the academic world but seems apt for this conference also.

https://www.academia.edu/9098718/Tips_for_Creating_the_Accessible_Conference_Presentation

It may be handy for JAMF to keep some of these things in mind for future presentation templates. In particular, improving contrast and recommended font sizing to ensure readability at future JNUCs.