This week we did ApacheCon in Austin. I shipped the original Apache feather to the venue for 20th birthday of the Apache web server project, and it hung above the stage for the keynotes.

It’s an item that we’re very proud of, and of some historical significance.

The conference producers treated it like it was the Declaration of Independence or something. They handled it carefully and reverently.

At the end of the event the guy in charge of A/V came to me with some twine.

He said he had removed it from the hanging hooks on the feather in order to use black nylon that matched the stage dressing, and which would hang more securely. But he saved these scraps of twine because he knew how significant the item was to us.

Now, it’s not that the twine mattered – it was something I added years after the original was made. It’s that he cared enough, and respected our heritage enough to save it and track me down, that impressed me so very much. It really put a wonderful final touch on an almost-perfect event.

And this is why, among many other reasons, we love our conference production company, The Linux Foundation.