Last year, I had a great time at the Penn State MacAdmins conference. There were tons of smart people to mingle with and everyone had plenty to discuss when it came to managing the Mac. There were a lot of people from education but also plenty from companies. The talks were well run and the conference location, the Penn Stater, was awesome. I love how it’s like a big winding maze.

Having gone to school in a town like State College (Athens, GA), I’ve always had a warm spot for cute college towns. And State College is clearly a special place. I’d recommend a trip there to anyone that loves places like Ann Arbor, Norman, Stillwater, Opelika, Corvallis, Blacksburg, Madison, Manhattan (Kansas), Ithaca, Iowa City, Ames, Morgantown, Lafayette (Indiana), Lawrence, Champaign, Logan, College Station and of course, Oxford Mississippi (Ole Miss is a truly special place).

So you’re lucky then, ’cause the Penn State MacAdmins Conference is back for 2013, being held in beautiful State College, PA at Penn State University. The Conference is May 22nd through 24th with a new introductory Boot Camp being held the day before (May 21st) to prep admins for the rest of the conference. And May is one of the best times to visit a place like this. Spring is in the air, kids are getting ready to graduate, the flowers are in bloom and of course, there’s no more snow to be shoveled. A month later and the school would practically be shut down, the town a ghost town.

But in late May, college towns are electric. So don’t just stay at the Penn Stater the whole time, go explore downtown and that Nittany Lion thing – and the spot where Joe Pa’s statue used to be. Take a carriage ride, swing by the Governor’s Pub, have some red meat at Otto’s and of course, perform the underclassmen ritual of throwing up on College Ave! And yes, there’s a College Ave, as there should be. Anyway, the social element of a conference like this is great. Meet those people you tell to RTFM on the ‘ole Enterprise List, the people whose feeds you read and the people whose feeds you deleted  ’cause they talk about college football too much…

The Call for Proposals is now open, so to submit a talk, use http://macadmins.psu.edu/conference/submit-proposals.

This year, there will also be sponsors. To sponsor, see http://macadmins.psu.edu/conference/sponsorships.

Or to attend, see http://macadmins.psu.edu/conference/registration.

To sign up for the conference newsletter, see http://psu.us4.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=acd8b6acc541596a7bdf8e517&id=d37a7e26fd.

And for an example of what you are in store for:

PS – There are 12 teams in the Big 10. While at State College, make sure to remind everyone wearing blue of this fact.