Non-JNUC Mac Conferences

[bvrooman]

I was dismayed recently when I came to the realization that another engagement means that I not be able to attend a conference in late October/early November, which may prevent me from going to JNUC2015. Depressing though that may be, I still want to spend a few days hanging out with people who actually understand what my job is and why Mac administration matters!

My question is, what are everyone's thoughts on the non-JNUC Mac conferences (PSU MacAdmins, MacTech, etc.)? I've certainly seen advertisements and post-conference videos, but I don't know much about the events themselves. If you couldn't make the JNUC (or even if you could), what else would you want to attend?

[rtrouton]

If you're near the East Coast, I unreservedly recommend Penn State MacAdmins.

http://macadmins.psu.edu

It's an affordable conference, tons of sessions and there's the option of attending pre-conference all-day and half-day workshops.

[jcompton]

Ditto to Mr. Rich !

[adamcodega]

There's http://macitconf.com/ as well, along with the one day (1.5 day if you do the MS Office certificate) regional events that MacTech does, along with MacTech's multi day conference during November in Los Angeles.

[Andreas_Schenk]

I'd highly recommend the Mac Sysadmin conference in Göteborg, Sweden which usually takes place in september.
Besides 4 days of conference with great speakers and lots of knowledge, you get to visit sweden at a time with still a lot of sun, nice people, swedish beer and a international crowd of attendees sharing their experiences.

Well worth a look over the ocean.

[RobertHammen]

PSU is one of the best and more affordable conferences. I've gone the last 3 years and hope to attend again this year.

MacSysadmin has awesome speakers/content but it's less affordable if you're coming from North America.

MacTech's conference is pretty decent.

MacIT is the week after PSU and has relocated to Santa Clara. It'll be interesting to see how well-attended this year's conference is.

[ahambidge]

I third (fourth?) MacAdmins at PSU. I attended for the first time in 2014, and it was a great conference. Not only I did get to attend a session lead by @rtrouton, and Mr. Neagle. Both sessions were incredibly helpful and really neat. And, fun fact, betwixt all conference attendees, we transferred 1.4TB of bandwidth in the first night. ;)

[bvrooman]

Great! Thanks for the responses, all. Hopefully I'll see some of you at MacAdmins (since I'm pretty nearby, in Ohio) or another conference. And hopefully the JNUC, but we'll have to see. :)

[laurendc]

I loved PSU MacAdmins and highly recommend it! The sessions were great and everybody was just so friendly. I gained so much when I attended last year and my environment is better for it. I think a benefit from the other conferences that you might not gain from the JNUC is that the others may have Casper-centric sessions but that it's not JUST focused on Casper solutions. There's a huge benefit to having exposure to more tools in the toolbox besides the solutions and sessions focused on the functions of a sole product.

[bentoms]

@laurendc, the points you've made are exactly why I'm hoping to attend PSU this year.

@bvrooman, other than the great suggestions here.. I'd say get yourself to a local Mac Admin meet up.