Have you been to Berkshire Hathaway's annual meetings?

Water Cooler
#1

Hi all – have any of you been to Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meetings? I’m thinking about going for the first time next year. It’ll be in Omaha on Saturday, May 4, 2013.

Curious to hear about anyone’s experiences. Looks like a super eventful weekend with lots of stuff happening on Friday and Sunday too.

#2

Someone here posted a recap earlier this year. It was worth the read.

#3

Thanks former trader. Found them. Here they are:

Part I – http://www.analystforum.com/forums/water-cooler/91311039

Part II – http://www.analystforum.com/forums/water-cooler/91311041

Part III – http://www.analystforum.com/forums/water-cooler/91311073

#4

I’ve gone.

#5

Never gone personally, but I’ve heard if you’re one of the cool kids, you can get into special events for buy side people. These are private parties with some pretty heavy duty investors. If you go, definitely try to figure out how you can get in the loop for that. You don’t have to be a massive BSD, just need an invite from someone involved (which I’m not sure how to get, but ask around in your network).

#6

Do you need a man date?

#7

i want to go but no one wants to go with me maybe I should hire an escort???..i’m going to the fairfax annual meeting though…

#8

Bump. Anyone going this year?

I got invited last night but have to pass. Just too little notice. I told Warren B we’ll have to kick it later.

#9

It’s on my bucket list.

#10

Well if Warren B being there is part of the bucket list, you may want to do it quickly lol

#11

For four of the last five years, Mr. Buffett has been doing worse than the typical, no-frills Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fund — so much worse that it’s unlikely to be a matter of a string of bad luck. Mr. Buffett has begun to behave like an investor with no alpha at all.

#12

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101394085

With four years remaining, Warren Buffett has a commanding lead in a decade-long bet that put a low-fee stock index fund up against a portfolio of high-priced hedge funds.

Buffett put his money behind his long-held argument that “experts” don’t do better than the stock market as a whole. It’s the basis of his argument that the fees “helpers” charge investors usually aren’t justified.

In a Fortune piece, long-time Buffett friend Carol Loomis writes that after six years the fund Buffett selected for the wager, the Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares, was up 43.8 percent at the end of 2013.

The other side of the bet is a collection of five hedge funds of funds chosen by New York-based Protégé Partners.

After all fees, their average gain was about 12.5 percent. The names of the funds have not been revealed.

#13

I think the most interesting experience – beyond hearing Buffett and Munger speak – is just rubbing elbows with a lot of other investors and exchanging ideas. Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it this year, but hopefully next year.

#14

+1 to FT.

and +1 to rawraw.

I have an enormous amount of respect for WB. In fact, I might consider him my “hero”, if I were to have one.

#15

What if you include the crash?

#16

People said the same thing in the late 90’s. And from 2000-2002, he trounced the index by 16%, 6%, and 32%.

#17

can you go with class b shares?

#18

^ yes

#19

Yep. When you get the annual report there’s a little card in there and you request how many passes to the meeting you want. You can get up to 4 if I remember correctly.

#20

I’m going