Attending The Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting

On the 4th May 2024 I was one of around 30,000 people attending the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting. The completion of a personal bucket list item.

For those that are not aware, Berkshire Hathaway is the company effectively run by legendary investors Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger.

It’s a huge investment company holding stock in the likes of Coca Cola, American Express, Chevron and Apple.

For over 60 years Buffett along with Charlie have been running Berkshire with returns well over the US S&P 500 stock index.

With Buffett being age 93 and Munger 98 at the time of booking the trip I did say to my colleague, I hope they both stay alive long enough for me to see them.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be for Munger who died aged 99 in November 2023. However, Buffett made it and it was fascinating to see and hear from a man who at age 93 still provides so much wisdom and economic analysis.

Attending the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting is a chance to hear from Warren Buffett and other members of the senior management team as they take questions from shareholders.

It always takes place at the CHI Health Centre in Omaha, Nebraska which is an indoor arena that feels more like a place you would watch a music concert.

Omaha may sound like an odd place to stage such a big investing event, but it is the place Buffett was born and has spent the majority of his life.

Interestingly, even though he is thought to be one of the richest people in the world, he has supposedly lived in the same modest home in Omaha for over 60 years.

The event itself is spread over two days but the main reason everyone attends is to hear from the man himself.

Buffett answers questions for around three hours in the morning and another two hours in the afternoon. Very impressive for someone who is 93!

Not just anyone can be attending the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting though. To do so you need to be a shareholder.

At the time of booking the trip last year just one class A share in Berkshire was costing $486,000. Enough to put off most people. Luckily you can still get in if you own a class B share which were priced much lower at around $320. So I bought one of those via my Lifetime ISA.

There are no tickets as such, just a special lanyard confirming you are a shareholder and you can’t book your place at the event. You just need to show up on the day and que to get your lanyard and be allowed in.

In order to get your lanyard and be allowed in you need to prove you are a shareholder. To prove you are a shareholder you will need to get a proxy form from your broker.

For me, I must say my broker Hargreaves Lansdown provided excellent service when requesting my proof of share ownership from them. They requested the lanyard for me and had it posted directly to me from Omaha weeks before the event. This saved a lot of queuing time.

Actually, it’s a bit of a myth that you need to be a shareholder as the more research I did for the event I found that you could in fact purchase the lanyards on eBay! Whether this will still be allowed going forward who knows.

Me and a few colleagues were travelling from London Heathrow to Omaha. There were no direct flights to Omaha, so we had to fly to Chicago first and then a connecting flight to Omaha.

We then stayed in an Air BnB just around the corner from Warren Buffett’s house. We were just going to walk past the house but when we saw others taking pictures outside, we couldn’t resist a quick selfie.

We only stayed in Omaha for five days and on our return trip home we had to fly to Dallas first and then on to London. All in all, we spent time in four US states. The extra one being the fact we walked across the Missouri River which separates the states of Nebraska and Iowa.

There was a very poignant video planned at the start of the meeting which showed the history of Buffett and Munger. It included some very funny clips of times they have appeared in sketches for famous comedy shows like The Office and Desperate Housewives.

Buffett is a very humble man. He doesn’t really take credit for anything and puts most of the success of Berkshire down to Munger and the team.

At the event the format of the Q and A session involved a mix of questions that have been sent in by shareholders and questions asked live from audience members.

It was amazing to see the variety of different people asking the questions, some old, young and from all over the world.

At the end of the Q and A session Buffett received a standing ovation from the entire crowd which must have gone on for nearly five minutes. It really was like being at a rock concert. Which other CEO gets that?!

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