The Journey to the Source: Why Leiden Was an Immediate “Yes”

There’s a certain irony in traveling 3,500 miles to Leiden only to feel like I was heading home.

I’m a New Yorker now, living in Yonkers—a city that owes its very name to the Dutch. It comes from the title Jonkheer (or “Young Lord”), the nickname for Adriaen van der Donck. Back in the day, the area was simply known as “The Jonkheer’s land.” As the years passed and the English took over, “Jonkheer” evolved into “Yonkers.” So, when the opportunity came to attend MacAdmins-EU in Leiden, Amsterdam, it was an immediate “yes.” I wasn’t just visiting the “Old World”; I was tracing a line back to where the story of my hometown began.

The Jordy Factor 

The spark for this trip started when ​@Jordy-Thery told me to “save the date” for the end of April. He couldn’t say much more at the time, but I was already sold. I’ve followed Jordy on the #macadmins Slack and LinkedIn for years, finally meeting him in person at an event in Nashville a few years back. He represents the soul of this community—a leader who doesn’t claim to know everything, but publicly connects people to the right answers. I wanted to be in that energy.

I booked my early-bird ticket immediately. I figured if I couldn’t make it, I’d just pay it forward and give the ticket to someone else, just as someone had done for me a year prior.  ​@tommypatzius  your good deed has not gone unnoticed.

Finding Unity in the Fleet
 

My path to becoming a full-fledged MacAdmin really started in 2016 at JNUC in Minneapolis. Now, Minneapolis wasn’t exactly on my bucket list—it’s cold, and I hate the cold—but that’s where I met modern-day heroes like ​@Serge  who helped me grasp the role that would eventually define my career.

For years, I’ve read thousands of pages from the late Charles “Krypted” Edge to ​@arminBriegel (who runs scriptingosx.com). When I found out Armin was part of this inaugural Leiden event, I was beyond excited. Since those early days, I’ve implemented the tools and scripts these legends created. Being in the same room as Armin, Misha, and Guillaume Gète wasn’t just about “networking”—it was about having a hallway chat and asking my own questions in an intimate setting. It was about witnessing how the best in the world think.

The Blue Hat in a Mac World 

If you saw a guy walking around the conference in a bright blue Dominican Republic baseball cap, that was me. In a world of corporate tech gear, that hat is my North Star. It represents where I’m from and the specific community I’m determined to build.

Coming from a background as a Windows admin, I never really found a true sense of “unity” until I joined this group. The MacAdmin community hits different because it’s built on collective knowledge rather than silos. Now, as I embark on a new project to expand that familiar feeling into the LATAM space, I needed to see what the “oldest continent” had to offer.

Validation and Vision 
 

This trip was the final gut-check for a project close to my heart. We are building Macdmins LATAM. I went to Europe to confirm that what my team is doing is necessary. We don’t just need more tools in the LATAM space; we need mentors.

I want to give a special thank you to the MacAdmins-EU organizers for spotlighting me and the MacAdmins-LATAM team. 

Having that platform meant everything. It gave the industry a chance to see the new generation of admins rising in Latin America, and it validated that our voices belong on the global stage.

A huge shout-out to the Jamf Community team ​@JoannaB and ​@JeniA for helping us find that perspective. They did something most tech companies forget to do: they took us out of the “IT mindset” at least for a few hours and focused on community engagement. They hosted a trip to the Keukenhof Gardens, and walking through those world-famous flowers was the perfect reminder that growth requires the right environment.

I’m coming back ready to help find mentors, but we need to do this together. LATAM has the talent; it just needs a better connection to the global IT stage. I’m inviting you to come join us. Help us build the community we all know we’re capable of creating

Leiden was a quick “yes” because you can’t build the future without respecting the roots. Now, let’s build what’s next.

Si Se Puede!

PS: I Asked AI to correct run on sentences, spelling and what not. The sentiment is mine and not invented