A full 24 hours before the opening keynote lights came up, a room full of admins had already rolled up their sleeves and dived into the Jamf Platform. That's Level Up, a one-day exclusive in-person training at JNUC, where folks can chat it up with other admins, jump right into the products, and walk straight into hands-on labs, all while earning a badge to prove it along the way. This year's sessions filled up fast, and having spent the day watching the classrooms in action, I'm convinced it's the best-kept secret of JNUC. I wanted to share what it was like from the inside and make the case for why you shouldn't skip it next year.
Two tracks, one packed day
This year, two training options were offered: Level Up Your Jamf Management and Security Workflows, and Level Up Your Automation and Jamf API Skills. Both were structured as hands-on labs, not lecture-and-slides sessions, which meant admins spent the day actually building, configuring, and troubleshooting rather than just watching a demo scroll by.
Across the two tracks, we filled up several classrooms, a full house of admins choosing to spend their day before JNUC deep in workflows instead of by the pool. That's the kind of turnout that tells you people don't just want to hear about what's possible with Jamf; they want to leave knowing how to do it themselves.
The energy in the room
What stuck with me most wasn't the curriculum; it was watching the room work through problems together. Hands-on labs have a way of surfacing the real questions people actually have, the ones that don't always come up in a Q&A after a keynote. Instructors were fielding edge cases, war stories, and "wait, can it also do this?" moments all day.
The feedback backed up what we saw in the room. From participants:
"Level Up Your Jamf Management and Security Workflows was a great way to kick off JNUC as a first-time attendee through the Diversity Sponsorship! A full day of hands-on labs made Blueprints, Compliance Benchmarks, and Self Service+ click for me in a way that would have taken me weeks to grasp. I left with useful workflows I plan to use in our Jamf Pro and School environments. Huge thanks to the Jamf Training team for creating the labs and to Zach and Morgan for being great teachers!" —
"It can be really hard to put on something like these Level Up days without leaving people behind. Jamf has done a great job keeping this content from going completely over a new admin's head while also making sure there's something even the most seasoned admin can take from the day. Thank you so much!" —
"I attended the Level Up for Jamf Blueprints this year. We had great discussions with the instructor and classmates about the upcoming changes to Apple and configuration profiles. This class gave us hands-on experience through real-world scenarios and exercises. I really enjoyed the Level Up opportunities. The API one last year was also helpful. I recommend these day courses to anyone who attends JNUC as a way to round off your conference and investment." — Michael Vu
"The class was great, full of information, and genuinely worth whatever they would have charged, plus more.” —
And instructors walked away just as energized:
"That was an epic day." — @richard_mallion
These kinds of reactions are exactly why Level Up exists. It's one thing to read documentation; it's another to build the thing yourself with an instructor and other admins close by when something breaks.
A head start on the week ahead
Level Up isn't just a nice warm-up; it set the stage for the rest of JNUC. Several of the workflows and concepts covered in both tracks connected directly to the product updates unveiled the next morning in the opening keynote. Admins who spent the day in Level Up walked into that keynote fluent in the groundwork, which made the announcements land differently, less "here's something new to figure out" and more "here's what I can look forward to and build off of when these updates release.”
Earning the training badge was a nice bonus, plus a limited-edition trading card this year, but the real takeaway for most people was walking into JNUC week already one step ahead.
Don't sleep on it next year.
If you were at JNUC and skipped Level Up, consider this your friendly nudge; it's worth the extra day. You show up to the main event already warmed up, with new connections and extra hype for the rest of the week.
Next year's tracks aren't announced yet, but if this year and previous years are any indication, seats will go quickly. Keep an eye on Jamf Nation and the JNUC registration page, and maybe pencil in that extra day before you book your hotel and travel.
