2026 MacAdmins Conference

Do you find yourself intimidated by running the gauntlet of sponsors at the conference? Are you unsure how to approach the tables? Maybe you have no interest or need for their product or service? This is the session for you to find out how wonderful and friendly our valuable sponsors are!

Speakers

Dave Provine

Consultant IT Risk Management

Dave has provided IT support and consulting to the advertising and creative industry since 1993, starting at W.B. Doner & Co. He founded an MSP in 1997 and worked with many of the creative agencies in the Baltimore region, as well as the creative groups inside the largest DOD contractors... Read More →

Thursday July 9, 2026 9:00am - 9:45am EDT
205 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Tags Career / Community & Wellbeing

9:00am EDT

Support as Relationship: How Human-Centred IT Builds Trust

Thursday July 9, 2026 9:00am - 9:45am EDT

207

What if IT support were more like a relationship instead of just a ticket queue? This session explores simple changes in language and daily habits that help us treat our colleagues as partners rather than mere “users.” We examine how these adjustments foster genuine trust, making people more comfortable seeking help and reporting problems early.

Speakers

Nathan Beranger

Manager, IT Systems, Bridgeable

Nathan is the IT Systems Manager at Bridgeable, responsible for the organization’s technology, security, and infrastructure. With a background in music education and performance, audio engineering, IT support, and leadership, he brings a human-centred perspective to his work and... Read More →

Thursday July 9, 2026 9:00am - 9:45am EDT
207 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Tags Career / Community & Wellbeing

9:00am EDT

From Chaos to Follow-Me: Implementing PaperCut Mobility Print on a Multi-Platform Campus

Thursday July 9, 2026 9:00am - 9:45am EDT

Deans Hall 2

Implementing Follow-Me printing in a higher-ed environment sounds simple until you add Macs, Windows PCs, authentication, mobility printing, and thousands of users. In this session, I’ll walk through how we deployed PaperCut Follow-Me printing at Rutgers, how we made macOS work seamlessly alongside Windows, and what we learned along the way. We’ll cover queue strategy, authentication, deployment methods, and real-world troubleshooting lessons from a live campus environment.

Speakers

Ray Nieves

System Administrator, Rutgers University

Ray has been a system administrator at Rutgers University for over 23 years.

Dennis Moffett

IT Manager for the Camden Campus, Rutgers University

Dennis Moffett manages Labs and Departmental Services at Rutgers University–Camden, supporting student labs, faculty and staff devices, and campus-wide printing infrastructure. He spends his days balancing macOS and Windows environments, automating what should be automated, and... Read More →

Thursday July 9, 2026 9:00am - 9:45am EDT
Deans Hall 2 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Tags Deployment / Identity & Infrastructure

9:00am EDT

Managing the Unmanageable: Rolling out Managed Apple Accounts (Overflow in 204)

Thursday July 9, 2026 9:00am - 9:45am EDT

Deans Hall 1

At Snap Inc., we had thousands of “personal” Apple IDs tied to corporate email, manual Apple Developer offboarding, and over 1,000 engineers relying on Apple services every day. This case study walks through how we designed and implemented federation and Managed Apple Accounts, moving to a fully automated, Okta-integrated lifecycle. You’ll see the real-world architecture, rollout plan, developer-safe migration tactics, and the gotchas we hit so you don’t have to.

Speakers

Katie Due

IT Platforms & Endpoint Management Leader

Katie Due is an IT Platforms leader specializing in Client Engineering and IT Asset Management, with deep experience across macOS, iOS, and identity-integrated device management. She has led large-scale Apple ecosystem deployments, including ownership of Apple Business Manager, GSX... Read More →

Thursday July 9, 2026 9:00am - 9:45am EDT
Deans Hall 1 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Tags Deployment / Identity & Infrastructure

9:00am EDT

DFU At Scale

Thursday July 9, 2026 9:00am - 9:45am EDT

206

Lessons learned from At Scale deployment of Apple Silicon Macs in education and enterprise. For the last 5 years, we have been on the front lines of deploying new and refurbished Apple Silicon Macs. We will discuss the process in different deployment situations, optimization of the process and interesting stories from the field. We will discuss the Apple technologies use, how we customized the tooling, and the surprising things we discovered along the way.

Speakers

Timothy Perfitt

Founder, Twocanoes Software

Building on his 11 years of experience at Apple, Timothy Perfitt left Apple and founded Twocanoes Software in 2012. At Apple he worked with Core OS and large enterprise customers to create and implement Mac and iPhone solutions to large companies and universities. He has a Master... Read More →

Marek Bajno

Apple Tech Enablement Lead Consultant IC Engineering, Computacenter

Apple Tech Enablement Lead Consultant at IC Engineering and Apple infrastructure architect at Computacenter US. Designs and builds scalable Apple environments supporting enterprise ecosystems, with deployments exceeding 1,000 devices daily. Over 25 years of experience specializing... Read More →

Faith Clauson

Technical Sales Lead, Acroname

Faith is on the sales team at Acroname, selling industrial USB hubs and switches. We are based in Boulder, CO. We are partnered with Twocanoes Software to bring a complete solution for scaling DFU and restore processes.

Thursday July 9, 2026 9:00am - 9:45am EDT
206 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Sponsor All Levels

Tags Sponsor

10:00am EDT

Three Lessons from a Woman in Enterprise Architecture

Thursday July 9, 2026 10:00am - 11:00am EDT

208

Women remain significantly underrepresented in enterprise architecture and technical leadership roles, yet we need leaders who can bridge people, process, technology, and strategy. But, this is not just a talk about EA—it is a conversation about courage, purpose, leadership, and creating space for all. Attendees will leave with practical strategies for building confidence, navigating change, fostering trust, supporting psychological safety, and transforming perceived weaknesses into strengths.

Speakers

Sarah Wimberley

Principal & Founder, Ulster Technologies

Sarah F. Wimberley is a detail-oriented leader with twenty years of experience in marketing and cloud-based technology, specializing in sales, marketing, customer service, and reporting tools. She has served as an enterprise architect, product owner, graphic designer, and program/project... Read More →

Thursday July 9, 2026 10:00am - 11:00am EDT
208 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Tags Career / Community & Wellbeing

10:00am EDT

Seamless Endpoint Branding at Scale: Dynamic Customization for macOS Fleets

Thursday July 9, 2026 10:00am - 11:00am EDT

Deans Hall 1

In multi-brand organizations, ensuring endpoints reflect the correct identity without added complexity is challenging. This session presents a vendor-neutral approach to dynamic macOS branding using just-in-time logic. Learn how to adapt tools like Munki, Nudge, Santa, SupportApp and more to automatically display the right branding based on user context—scalable, maintainable, and ready for organizational change.

Speakers

Kevin M. Cox

Manager Client Platform Engineering

Kevin is the Client Platforming Engineering Manager at DoorDash, Deliveroo and Wolt where he leads a team managing tens of thousands of devices globally.

Thursday July 9, 2026 10:00am - 11:00am EDT
Deans Hall 1 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Tags Deployment / Identity & Infrastructure

11:15am EDT

Beyond the Dashboard: Unified Apple Fleet Intelligence with Claris Pulse

Thursday July 9, 2026 11:15am - 12:00pm EDT

205

Mac admins manage data across MDM, helpdesk, ASM, ABM, Intune, Google Admin, and more—but rarely from a single view. This session introduces Claris Pulse, walks through real-world admin scenarios (fleet visibility, ticket correlation, device lifecycle), and includes a live demo. Attendees will leave with a clear picture of what unified Apple ecosystem data can look like in practice.

Note: This session will not be recorded.

Speakers

Gianine Campbell

Strategic Business Development, Apple

Gianine Campbell strives to help customers address technology challenges and get the most out of their Apple investments, by coupling the best software solutions with the right hardware to deliver impactful results. She has driven business development and developer education initiatives... Read More →

Thursday July 9, 2026 11:15am - 12:00pm EDT
205 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Automation / DevOps & Scripting All Levels

Tags Sponsor

11:15am EDT

Open Source Contributions Don't Have to Be Code

Thursday July 9, 2026 11:15am - 12:00pm EDT

208

Don't feel comfortable contributing code to your favorite open source project? Don't worry! Coding skills are not needed to contribute to open sources projects and the communities built around them. This session will discuss the various ways you can contribute even if you never write a line of code.

Speakers

Vaughn Miller

Client Platform Engineer, Lafayette College

Vaughn has been working in higher education IT for longer than he cares to admit. He is currently a Desktop Engineer at Lafayette College in Easton Pennsylvania

Thursday July 9, 2026 11:15am - 12:00pm EDT
208 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Tags Career / Community & Wellbeing

11:15am EDT

From recipe to reality: Automating software deployment with AutoPkg and Fleet

Thursday July 9, 2026 11:15am - 12:00pm EDT

Deans Hall 2

Learn how to build end-to-end software deployment workflows using AutoPkg and Fleet's open-source platform. This session covers practical examples of automating everything from package creation to deployment through GitOps workflows. You'll see how AutoPkg processors integrate with Fleet's API, how to manage software releases declaratively, and how to build repeatable workflows that scale. We'll demo real recipes, review common patterns, and discuss community contributions to FleetImporter.

Speakers

Kitzy

Customer Solutions Architect, Fleet

Kitzy is a Customer Solutions Architect at Fleet and co-founder of The Mac Admins Slack. With 15+ years in Mac administration and device management, they've built tools like FleetImporter and spoken at conferences including X-World, MacADUK, and Penn State Mac Admins. They've previously... Read More →

Thursday July 9, 2026 11:15am - 12:00pm EDT
Deans Hall 2 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Tags Deployment / Identity & Infrastructure

11:15am EDT

How Root went Mac First

Thursday July 9, 2026 11:15am - 12:00pm EDT

206

This session will go over how we went from a primarily PC first org to Mac first, outlining steps taken to justify the cost and change to leadership as well as working with user's who primarily worked off windows before.

Speakers

Michael Lynn

Sr. Information Technology Specialist, Root Insurance

I am a Sr. Information Technology Specialist at Root Insurance, specializing in macOS system administration and enterprise device management. I manage IT infrastructure using tools like Iru, ServiceNow, and Endpoint Central, while providing critical support for software deployments... Read More →

Ilyas Bekkair

Information Technology Specialist 1, Root Insurance

I am an IT Specialist at Root Insurance, specializing in macOS administration and enterprise device management. I got my start interning with Root in high school and have grown into my role over the last 3 years. I manage IT operations using Kandji, ServiceNow, and Okta, and am pursuing... Read More →

Thursday July 9, 2026 11:15am - 12:00pm EDT
206 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Tags Deployment / Identity & Infrastructure

11:15am EDT

The Mac-Native Way to Deliver Windows Apps, Powered by Parallels Desktop

Thursday July 9, 2026 11:15am - 12:00pm EDT

207

Mac adoption continues to grow, but many organizations still depend on Windows applications for critical workflows. This session explores the latest advancements in control, automation, and visibility of Windows VMs and Windows apps for IT teams. You'll get a look at the future of virtualization on macOS, including how to deliver Windows apps with a simple, app-centric experience that integrates directly into macOS management workflows, making them feel like a native part of the user's work.

Speakers

Luba Kulakova

Principal Product Manager, Parallels Desktop

Luba leads the B2B product strategy for Parallels Desktop, focusing on enterprise virtualization on macOS. She works closely with Mac administrators across corporate and educational environments to understand their operational challenges and improve VMs deployment, management, and... Read More →

Alex Patsay

Sr Director of Product Management, Parallels

Alex Patsay is a Senior Director of Product Management at Parallels, where he oversees several strategic projects within Parallels Desktop — the leading solution for running Windows applications on Mac. With extensive experience in product management, Alex brings a deep understanding... Read More →

Thursday July 9, 2026 11:15am - 12:00pm EDT
207 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Sponsor All Levels

Tags Sponsor

1:15pm EDT

The Journey of Apple Issue Escalation

Thursday July 9, 2026 1:15pm - 2:15pm EDT

208

"File a feedback" is not the end of the conversation with Apple, but the beginning. I have been inside Apple Engineering, am a current Apple customer and developer and a software vendor that depends on Apple technology for success. Over the last 25 years, I have learned how to effectively escalate issues, understand the obscure responses, and have a productive relationship with Apple.

Speakers

Timothy Perfitt

Founder, Twocanoes Software

Thursday July 9, 2026 1:15pm - 2:15pm EDT
208 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Core Mac Administration All Levels

Tags Core Mac Administration

1:15pm EDT

Rock the Cache-Bar! Apple Content Caching Explained

Thursday July 9, 2026 1:15pm - 2:15pm EDT

207

Built into macOS is a powerful feature (which a lot of device management admins are unaware of) to save bandwidth and improve update times/experiences: Apple Content Caching. But how does it work? How do you configure it? Why should I use it? What are the Pro's and Con's? In this session, we'll cover the details of configuring and using Apple Content Caching.

Speakers

Robert Hammen

Principal Mac Engineer

As a former IT manager, consultant, Apple Certified System Administrator, and Apple Certified Trainer, I've been managing Macs since before the days of OS X. After 5 years managing the tens of thousands of Apple devices at SpaceX, sending 58 iPads to orbit with astronauts and cosmonauts... Read More →

Thursday July 9, 2026 1:15pm - 2:15pm EDT
207 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Tags Deployment / Identity & Infrastructure

1:15pm EDT

Seven Reasons Why You Should Store Metadata on Your Macs

Thursday July 9, 2026 1:15pm - 2:15pm EDT

206

Storing metadata from Jamf or other sources on your managed Macs can be an important tool for managing your Mac environment. This metadata can reduce the need for API calls, track the number of days a Mac is unpatched, store a build date, and importantly, ensure that mission-critical Configuration Profiles remain on your Mac. Attendees will learn about creating and modifying PLISTS, and will be provided numerous (at least seven!) use cases, plus scripts, Extension Attributes, and Smart Groups.

Speakers

Marc Grubb

Senior Mac Platform Engineer, Sophos LTD

Thursday July 9, 2026 1:15pm - 2:15pm EDT
206 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Security & Compliance All Levels

Tags Security & Compliance

1:15pm EDT

Apple Intelligence & Private Cloud Compute (Overflow in 204)

Thursday July 9, 2026 1:15pm - 2:15pm EDT

Deans Hall 2

Learn about Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that combines the power of generative models with personal context to deliver intelligence that’s incredibly useful and relevant. Apple Intelligence is deeply integrated into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. It harnesses the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks. With Private Cloud Compute, Apple sets a new standard for privacy in AI, with the ability to flex and scale computational capacity between on-device processing and larger, server-based models that run on dedicated Apple silicon servers.

Note: This session will not be recorded.

Speakers

Apple Inc.

Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Company by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, the... Read More →

Thursday July 9, 2026 1:15pm - 2:15pm EDT
Deans Hall 2 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Tools / AI & Practical Solutions All Levels

Tags Tools / AI & Practical Solutions

2:50pm EDT

Not broken, just different: Working with ADHD, anxiety, and neurodivergence in tech

Thursday July 9, 2026 2:50pm - 3:50pm EDT

207

Mac Admin work requires staying calm while systems break and priorities shift. For neurodivergent people, this creates predictable challenges. Two neurodivergent technical professionals share practical techniques they use to stay effective: time containment, energy-aware scheduling, professional communication strategies, and when to ask for accommodations. You'll leave with concrete tools you can use during incidents, meetings, and when your brain is loud.

Speakers

Kitzy

Customer Solutions Architect, Fleet

Andrea Pepper

IT Engineer, FleetDM

Thursday July 9, 2026 2:50pm - 3:50pm EDT
207 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Tags Career / Community & Wellbeing

2:50pm EDT

Put Down the MDM Config for a Minute: Let’s Fall Back in Love with the Mac (Overflow in 204)

Thursday July 9, 2026 2:50pm - 3:50pm EDT

206

As Mac engineers and administrators, we spend our days deep in MDM configurations, policy conflicts, and deployment pipelines. And somewhere in that grind it’s easy to lose sight of what makes macOS genuinely exciting to use. This session takes a deliberate step back from the technical trenches to spotlight the features hiding in plain sight across recent macOS releases; the ones your users might not have discovered yet, the ones that will make them smile, and the ones that quietly solve real workflow problems. And yes, that includes your workflow too. Because before you can champion the platform to others, you deserve a moment to rediscover it for yourself, to pick up a trick or two that makes your own day a little smoother and maybe even a little fun again. Whether you’re trying to win over a reluctant Windows migrant, re-energize a long-time Mac user who’s stuck in their ways, or simply remind yourself why you chose this platform in the first place, this session is your permission slip to get excited about macOS again.

Note: This session will not be recorded.

Speakers

Apple Inc.

Thursday July 9, 2026 2:50pm - 3:50pm EDT
206 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Core Mac Administration All Levels

Tags Core Mac Administration

2:50pm EDT

MDM Migrations - Intune Edition

Thursday July 9, 2026 2:50pm - 3:50pm EDT

208

Discuss migrating from one MDM to another, specifically Microsoft Intune. How to plan your MDM migration, including Identity Management, Enrollment, Software, User Interactions, and System Extensions. We will look at the options for migrating including AxM and another tool we developed to support macOS 15 and lower.

Speakers

Chad Swarthout

Founder & CEO, Alectrona

Chad Swarthout is Founder & CEO of Alectrona, providing Mac management services and software solutions to IT organizations. Chad has been supporting Apple devices in the enterprise for over 15 years providing managed services, training, and consulting services for rapidly scaling... Read More →

Andrew Myers

Client Platform Engineer, Alectrona

Andrew is a seasoned Mac Admin working within multiple MDMs, open-sourced MacAdmin tools, and just getting Macs into organizations. Before Alectrona, worked in higher education for over 10+ years.

Thursday July 9, 2026 2:50pm - 3:50pm EDT
208 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Device Management & MDM All Levels

Tags Device Management & MDM

4:15pm EDT

Navigating LGBT Challenges and Building Support in IT a year later

Thursday July 9, 2026 4:15pm - 5:15pm EDT

205

This panel , as a follow up to last year will explore the differences between last year and this year in the United States and the increased challenges faced by LGBT professionals in the IT industry and society. we will discuss workplace dynamics, representation, mental health, and overcoming biases, while sharing personal experiences and actionable insights. The session aims to spark dialogue, promote allyship, and encourage concrete steps toward a more inclusive IT environment.

Note: This session will not be recorded.

Speakers

Brooke Miller

Mac Admin, Frostburg State University

Hi I’m Mac and I work on Brookes.

John Eberle

Tuxudo, Tuxudo

A native of the Pittsburgh area and graduate of Penn State. Currently a Mac admin at a non-profit in the Pittsburgh area web apps, fixing hardware of all kinds, and supporting everything IT.

Louise MacLemur Radifera

macLemur, macLemur

Louise entered the world of geekdom after seeing her first tech movie where she watched HAL refuse to open the pod bay doors and then seeing the ‚Äúold‚Äù Duotronic computers not only work, but provide answers by voice on starships on TV. She has been fascinated by computers... Read More →

Leon Chung

Client Platform Engineer

Joined Mac admins back in IRC days managing a small fleet of Macs, now managing mostly Windows and memes.

Sabrina Coy

IT Support, Cape

My middle name is Buckets.

Thursday July 9, 2026 4:15pm - 5:15pm EDT
205 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Tags Career / Community & Wellbeing

4:15pm EDT

Mobile Device Management - Working to Get it Right

Thursday July 9, 2026 4:15pm - 5:15pm EDT

208

MDM migrations are inevitable for iOS admins—but they don’t have to be disruptive. Join me as I share Louisville-Jefferson County Metro’s journey to Addigy, including real-world strategies, lessons learned, and practical tips. Discover what worked, what didn’t, and how to streamline your transition while minimizing user impact and keeping your Apple device fleet secure and compliant.

Speakers

Monique Hunt

Asset Management and Procurement Supervisor, Louisville-Jefferson Metro Government

I have over 20 years of IT experience focused on software training, large‑scale deployments, and operational support. For the past five years, I’ve served as the Asset Management & Procurement Supervisor for Louisville Metro Government, leading technology lifecycle initiatives... Read More →

Thursday July 9, 2026 4:15pm - 5:15pm EDT
208 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Device Management & MDM All Levels

Tags Device Management & MDM

4:15pm EDT

Apple Platform Security (Overflow in 204)

Thursday July 9, 2026 4:15pm - 5:15pm EDT

Deans Hall 2

Apple devices are secure by design, helping IT admins monitor and protect devices without needing to disable core features. Join this session for foundational learning on Apple Platform Security and management capabilities, and how they work together to elevate both the user experience and the needs of enterprise IT. This session is recommended for IT admins who are getting started with Apple.

Note: This session will not be recorded.

Speakers

Apple Inc.

Thursday July 9, 2026 4:15pm - 5:15pm EDT
Deans Hall 2 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Security & Compliance All Levels

Tags Security & Compliance

4:15pm EDT

Mac Admins Foundation Action News!

Thursday July 9, 2026 4:15pm - 5:15pm EDT

206

The Mac Admins Foundation team has been quiet so far in 2026. Come learn what the team has cooking for the second half of 2026!

Speakers

Chris Dawe

Co-Chair, Mac Admins Foundation

Among other things, Chris Dawe is the Co-Chair of the Mac Admins Foundation.

Scott Blake

Senior IT Engineer, Flywire

Scott is a longtime Apple Admin with over 20 years experience in IT. He is currently working for Flywire where he and the rest of the team manage a fleet of 1300 Apple devices across the globe. He spends most of his evenings enabling his kids to do great things in soccer, tennis... Read More →

Thursday July 9, 2026 4:15pm - 5:15pm EDT
206 Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, 215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803, USA

Sponsor Career / Community & Wellbeing All Levels

Tags Career / Community & Wellbeing

6:00pm EDT

AI Hack Night

Thursday July 9, 2026 6:00pm - 8:00pm EDT

105