Several members of the Macadamia Protection Programme (MaPP) attended the SAMAC (Macadamias South Africa NPC) research networking day in Johannesburg on 8-9 June. The purpose of this two-day event was for researchers to provide an overview of all the different research projects funded by SAMAC. The two days were organised around 11 sessions divided into three general themes: diseases, pests and cultivars. FABI and the MaPP was well represented in six of the eleven sessions. During the disease sessions, Gerhard Botha (MSc student) and Byron Sonnekus (PhD candidate) presented their work on the flower blights diseases whereas Dr Gerda Fourie talked about fungal symbionts associated with bark ambrosia beetles and their impact on macadamia in South Africa. Elisa Pal (PhD candidate) and Thembeka Mkhize (MSc student) opened the pest sessions with their talks on the Two-spotted stink bug, followed by Ashleigh Smith (PhD candidate) and Dr Rosali Moffat who spoked about Macadamia nut borer and Macadamia felted coccid, respectively. The pest sessions ended with Max Kibor (PhD student) and Ntombizwodwa Luvhimbi (MSc sudent) from the Department of Zoology and Entomology with their talks on thrips. Finally, in the cultivar sessions Mary Ranketse (PhD candidate) and Melissa Reynolds (DNA Fingerprinting Platform Manager) from the Forest Molecular Genetics group in FABI presented their work on macadamia fingerprinting and genomics. This event was a great opportunity to connect with the industry and various technical advisors and to establish connections with researchers. We would like to thank the SAMAC for giving us the opportunity to share our research.