Confession time: I don’t love conferences. There, I said it. Something about juggling name badges, lukewarm coffee, and the eternal quest for a power outlet makes me twitch. But here’s the thing—Mac Admin conferences? Totally different story. They’re part family reunion, part nerd summer camp, and part “hey, maybe I’ll actually learn something that makes my job easier.”

If you wrangle Macs for a living (or are just the person everyone calls when their Dock “mysteriously disappears”), then these are the events that make you feel like you’ve found your people. Let’s take a quick tour of the biggest ones happening in 2025, complete with the when, where, who, and how-much.

Mac Admins Conferences

1. MacAdmins Conference at Penn State (PSU)

• When & Where: July 15–18, 2025 — Penn State University, State College, Pennsylvania
• Website: macadmins.psu.edu
• Cost: $600–$800

Why you should care: PSU MacAdmins is basically the Comic-Con of Apple IT. Picture over a thousand Mac-wranglers crammed into lecture halls, swapping deployment war stories like battle-hardened veterans.

It’s got everything: deep-dive workshops on MDM, automation tricks you wish you’d known last year, and just enough social events to remind you that other people exist outside the Slack workspace. I like to call it a “family reunion,” except you actually like some of the relatives here.

2. MacSysAdmin (Göteborg, Sweden)

• When & Where: Early October 2025 — Gothenburg, Sweden
• Website: macsysadmin.se
• Cost: SEK 15 960 (~$1,663.93 + VAT)

Why you should care: MacSysAdmin is the Scandi-chic cousin of PSU. It’s single-track (so no agonizing over which session to skip) and highly curated, meaning every talk is worth your attention.

Imagine IKEA-level organization but with more jokes about shell scripts. You’ll leave Gothenburg with both advanced technical knowledge and possibly a new appreciation for fika breaks. If you like your conferences polished, thoughtful, and just a little bit cozy, this is your spot.

3. X World (Australia)

• When & Where: Early September — Melbourne, Australia
• Website: https://xworld.au/
• Cost: AUD $649 Regular, $149 Student ($420.68 USD, $96.59 USD Student)

Why you should care: X World is the Southern Hemisphere’s answer to “hey, why don’t we have one of these events down here?” Hosted by the Apple University Consortium, it’s perfect for IT folks in higher ed (or anyone who enjoys using “uni” unironically).

Expect a mix of hands-on sessions, practical deployment advice, and the occasional reminder that kangaroos really do hop through suburbs sometimes. It’s smaller than PSU but big on community spirit, and that makes it feel like an extended study group—minus the group project freeloaders.

4. Objective by the Sea (OBTS)

• When & Where: Oct 15-17 - a coastal town (Ibiza, Maui, Marbella, etc)
• Website: objectivebythesea.com
• Cost: €499.00 (~$600 USD)

Why you should care: If security is your jam, OBTS is basically an all-you-can-eat buffet. Founded by Patrick Wardle (aka the Gandalf of macOS security), it’s the only conference dedicated to Apple security.

Sessions here aren’t “how to reset your grandma’s iCloud password”—they’re malware analysis, deep dives into macOS vulnerabilities, and defensive tools that make you feel like you’re in a spy movie. The best part? It’s small enough that you’ll actually chat with the researchers you fangirl/fanboy over on Twitter.

5. MacDevOps YVR (Vancouver, Canada)

• When & Where: June — Vancouver, British Columbia
• Website: mdoyvr.com
• Cost: $230–$530 CAD (~$165–$380 USD)

Why you should care: MacDevOps YVR is where DevOps and Mac Admins shake hands, exchange GitHub repos, and realize they’ve been fighting the same battles all along. Think pipelines, CI/CD, and automation galore, with a casual community vibe.

It’s smaller (around 200–300 people), which means more hallway conversations and lightning talks, less running from ballroom to ballroom. Plus, Vancouver in June is gorgeous. You can learn about scripting in the morning and eat poutine by the water in the evening. Win-win.

Other Conferences Mac Admins Attend

Sometimes you’ve gotta peek over the fence at the big IT playgrounds too. These aren’t Mac Admin–exclusive, but they’re popular among folks in our world who need to track security trends, cloud tools, or Apple’s own announcements. Here’s a quick rundown:

• WWDC (Apple Worldwide Developers Conference)
  • Website: developer.apple.com/wwdc
  • When & Where: Early June,  Cupertino, California
  • Cost: ~$1,600 (lottery-based in-person tickets; virtual is free)
• Google Cloud Next
  • Website: cloud.withgoogle.com/next
  • When & Where: April, Las Vegas, Nevada
  • Cost: ~$999–$2,000
• AWS re:Invent
  • Website: reinvent.awsevents.com
  • When & Where: December, Las Vegas Nevada
  • Cost: $2,099
• DEF CON / Black Hat
  • Websites: blackhat.com / defcon.org
  • Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
  • When & Where: August, Las Vegas, Nevada
  • Cost: Black Hat ~$2,700 - $3400+, DEF CON ~$500 cash-at-door
• SANS Apple/macOS Security Trainings & Summits
  • Website: sans.org
  • When & Where: Multiple sessions year-round, different cities
  • Cost: Varies
• ACEs Conference
  • Website: acesconf.com
  • When & Where: Spring, Location Varies
• RSA Conference
  • Website: rsaconference.com
  • When & Where: April, San Francisco, California
  • Cost: ~$2,195 - $2,995+
• Dell Technologies World
  • Website: delltechnologiesworld.com
  • When & Where: May, Las Vegas, Nevada
  • Cost: $2395 - $2595
• Cisco Live!
  • Website: ciscolive.com
  • When & Where:
    • May - Las Vegas, Nevada
    • Nov - Melbourne - AUD $1,900.00 - $2,546.50 ($1231 USD - $1650 USD)
    • Feb - Amsterdam

Final Thoughts

Look, you don’t have to hit all of these conferences (unless you’ve somehow cracked the code for unlimited professional development budgets—in which case, please adopt me). But whether you stick to the Mac Admin staples like PSU or MacSysAdmin, or you wander into the big-ticket shows like RSA or re:Invent, you’re investing in two things:

1. Your tech skills — because let’s face it, Apple changes faster than your users forget their passwords.
2. Your sanity — because nothing beats talking shop with people who get it.

So pack your laptop and pick the conference that speaks to you. Even if you don’t come home with all the answers, you’ll definitely come home with new friends, new ideas, and at least 100 new stickers for your MacBook.