2026 MacAdmins Conference

Welcome to the MacAdmins Conference at Penn State! Once you are settled, come visit us at the registration desk to get your name badge and conference information.

Breakfast for all conference participants.

Welcome to Day One! Get oriented to our day with some morning updates from a member of the conference steering committee.

New to Mac administration or Apple device management? This full-day workshop gives you a clear view of today’s Apple management landscape and the core concepts you need to succeed. We’ll cover macOS fundamentals, vendor-agnostic MDM and DDM principles, essential tools and workflows, best practices, and practical resources. You’ll leave with a solid foundation to confidently build and manage your macOS program.

Remember: You've already selected your workshop during registration. Adding this workshop to your sched agenda does not count.

This full-day workshop combines two half-day workshops.

In the morning:
How to edit your terrible tech writing
Everything you write as an engineer is technical writing — email, computer dialogs, how-to guides, presentations, or scripts.

Today, we’re fighting our audience’s short attention span to get our messages across. But whose fault is it if they don’t pay attention? Optimize your writing to give it impact.

In a half-day workshop, I can’t teach you how to write technical documentation, but I can show you how to improve what you have.

There’s no such thing as good writing — only good editing.

In the afternoon:
Troubleshooting Inclusion: Leveraging Neurodivergent Strengths for Effective Collaboration
Neurodivergent IT admins bring unique strengths to their teams, but effective collaboration requires understanding and communication. This workshop focuses on helping neurotypical colleagues appreciate neurodivergent perspectives and empowers neurodivergent admins to advocate for their needs, learn strategies to foster inclusion, improve teamwork, and turn differences into opportunities for growth. This will be an open discussion and ALL are welcome.

Remember: You've already selected your workshop during registration. Adding this workshop to your sched agenda does not count.

Shell scripting is a core skill for MacAdmins, but it’s often learned piecemeal under pressure. This hands-on workshop covers scripting fundamentals with a strong focus on real-world macOS workflows and good reliable scripting habits. We’ll talk through common pitfalls, testing strategies, and best practices for writing and deploying scripts via MDM. Whether you’re brand new or filling in gaps, you’ll leave with practical skills and confidence.

Remember: You've already selected your workshop during registration. Adding this workshop to your sched agenda does not count.

Charles is not a PowerShell advocate. He doesn't even like it very much. But even he will admit, PowerShell for macOS does what it says on the tin: It is, in fact, a command line shell with some considerable power, and it does a pretty good job automating tasks on macOS. Whether you're a dyed-in-the-wool bash scripter, or you've never ventured into the Terminal beyond pasting in "defaults write" commands, if you're PowerShell curious, this hands-on workshop is for you. It may even surprise you.

Remember: You've already selected your workshop during registration. Adding this workshop to your sched agenda does not count.

This full-day workshop combines two half-day workshops.

In the morning:
Automate Anything! Create AutoPkg Processor from scratch
This workshop will walk through the steps of creating an AutoPkg processor from start to finish. It will also cover testing the processor and creating example recipes from it.

In the afternoon:
macOS GitOps: Building Secure and Versioned macOS Script Repos
I once accidentally committed a sensitive API key to GitHub, and I only realized it when Security reached out to me. That is the reason I built Shikomi (https://github.com/maparker/shikomi), an open-source tool I built to help Mac Admins build scripts that are secure and versioned. We will use it as a framework to automate things like versioning, security scanning, and GitHub Actions.

Remember: You've already selected your workshop during registration. Adding this workshop to your sched agenda does not count.

This session will educate admins on the changes and the process of developing and deploying a working security baseline with version 2.0 of the macOS Security Compliance Project. We'll cover what's new from 1.0 and, similar to our session in 2023, have you build your own baselines live. Note: You did not have to be at the 2023 session to know what's going on here.

Remember: You've already selected your workshop during registration. Adding this workshop to your sched agenda does not count.

Lunch for all conference participants.

MacAdmins? Speakers ONLY
Meeting for MacAdmins' Speakers to meet the conference staff, get room orientation, and Q/A.

Kick off the conference with dinner and a great opportunity to network with colleagues, speakers, sponsors, and the conference staff.

Join us in Presidents Hall for dinner and opening remarks and special presentations. Later, enjoy dessert, games, and great conversation in the Penn Stater Courtyard. An on-site bar will be available and accepts both cash and card.