I’ll be attending Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting at the beginning of May. After attending it last year, I had serious doubts about returning. The Q&A session, which is really the reason to attend and consumes three quarters of the meeting, was not very fruitful. Questions asked by attendees were “dumb” – Charlie Munger’s words, not mine. The majority of questions had nothing to do with Berkshire and addressed important investment topics like Buffett’s “relationship with Jesus” (no kidding) and tips on how to look for a job. Buffett is great, brilliant, we love him but he is not God. I was surprised last year’s questions did not ask him for advice of how he would do brain surgery. I’ll stop here…. However, Buffett, being a smart fellow and all, changed the format of Q&A this year. This year questions will be submitted ahead of time to three reporters and thus will go through the process of un-natural selection, which in this case is a good thing.
The BRK annual meeting turned into a value investing social gathering. It does provide a great opportunity to meet, debate, learn from, and, this year, sympathize with other value investors. I’ll have a couple of free hours on Friday. You are invited to join me and couple of friends for cheap talk (we are value investors after all) and drinks (mostly water with no ice – value investors cannot afford anything else in this market). We’ll be at the Double Tree hotel bar area on Friday, May 1st, from 1:30 to 4pm. Nothing formal, just like-minded folks getting together for a chat.
In addition I’ll attend the following events:
I’ll stop by Dairy Queen on Friday night to sign books. But more importantly I am looking forward to meeting other authors who will be there. I am especially looking forward to meeting Jeff Matthews in person (we exchanged emails over last five years, but never met). Jeff wrote a must read book on Berkshire and Buffett. It was not another biography, but the most insightful, and very critical (fair and balanced) analysis of Buffett and Berkshire I’ve ever read. I recommend this book strongly to everyone.
The authors of two other books that I believed were excellent will be at the signing. Robert Cialdini’s Yes! I’ve read many books on behavioral finance, this one is top notch. Pat Dorsey’s The Little Book that Builds Wealth is a must read as well, he took well known concepts from Michael Porter’s competitive strategy and added a lot of value and great examples of how to apply them to company analysis.
· Yellow BRK’s Group, Friday 4pm
· Graham and Dodd Investing reception, on Saturday 4-6:30pm.
· Tom Gayner’s of Markel Sunday brunch presentation (804-747-0136 for more info)
Here is more information about DQ event:
OMAHA–Start your “Woodstock of Capitalism” experience with an exercise in good taste: Enjoy a free ice cream cone at the West Dodge Dairy Queen, 404 N. 114th St. (at Dodge) from 8:30 pm until 10 pm on Friday, May 1.
The reception, now in its 11th year, will also give you a chance to visit with a Warren Buffett CEO and several authors:
· Glen Arnold, The Financial Times Guide to Value Investing, (FT Press)
· Bill Buffett, Foods You Will Enjoy – The Story of Buffett’s Store
· Randy Cepuch, A Weekend With Warren Buffett (Perseus)
· Bill Child, How to Build a Business Warren Buffett Would Buy: The R. C. Willey Story (Shadow Mountain)
· Robert Cialdini, Influence (Collins); Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways To Be Persuasive (Free Press)
· Patrick Dorsey, The Little Book That Builds Wealth (Wiley)
· Vitaliy Katsenelson, Active Value Investing (Wiley)
· Janet Lowe, Warren Buffett Speaks, Damn Right: Behind the Scenes With Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger, Google Speaks (Wiley)
· Jeff Matthews, Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett’s Omaha (McGraw-Hill)
· Robert P. Miles, 101 Reasons to Own the World’s Greatest Investment; Warren Buffett CEO; and Warren Buffett Wealth (Wiley)
· Janet Tavakoli, Dear Mr. Buffett: What an Investor Learns 1,269 Miles from Wall Street
· Timothy Vick, How To Pick Stocks Like Warren Buffett (McGraw-Hill)
No reservations are necessary, but you’ll need to show your annual meeting credentials for an ice cream cone, compliments of John Wiley and Sons Publishers. Other DQ products will be available for purchase. This event is also sponsored by The Reader, The University of Nebraska at Omaha College of Business Administration and the Omaha Airport Hudson Booksellers. Hope to see you there. More info and directions
0 comments