Am all set for Warren Buffett’s big day – the Berkshire Hathaway AGM here in Omaha on May 4th 2013. This year, instead of copious note taking and the next week trying to decipher them, will be using Twitter to record proceedings. You can follow through the stream on www.twitter.com/alechogg.
The Press Box opens at 6am local time (1pm SA time), so I’ll be heading out to the Arena soon. Many of the South African contingent here have been in the queues since 5:30am joining hundreds of others, some who’ve been outside the arena since before midnight – quite a sacrifice in this year’s freezing cold. Kokkie Kooyman, traditional leader of the SA group and here for his 14th AGM, showed me pics of the serious snowfall Omaha experienced on Thursday. The chill is still very much in the fresh MidWestern air.
If you haven’t been exposed to what happens at a Berkshire AGM, it works like this:
- There are long queues around the arena some time before the doors open at 7am. That’s because apart from the Berkshire directors and top managers of its 70+ subsidiaries, there’s no pre-booking of seats. Something around 30 000 of BRK’s 600 000 shareholders turn up at Omaha’s CenturyLink arena for the AGM, making it easily the biggest AGM in the USA. The arena’s capacity is around 18 000. So do the math – arrive early or stand! Early mornings are usually crisp in Omaha at this time of the year. It will be interesting to see whether these Arctic conditions influence the length of the pre-door-opening queues.
- An important part of the event is the displays/shops in the arena’s 18 000 square metre basement. The Berkshire subsidiaries do a roaring trade on the day; with around $35m turnover for the same weekend last year when See’s Candy sold 450kg of chocolates (“candy”); Justin Boots moved more than 1 000 pairs of its cowboy boots; and Berkshire’s new running shoes company Brooks sold $150 000 worth of merchandise. My favourite basement spot is The Bookworm where I hope to secure one of 500 signed copies of Carol Loomis’s new book Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything. Will also be buying copies of three other books that WEB (for newbies – Warren E Buffett) recommended in his Shareholder’s letter.
- WEB begins his meet and greet around the basement at 7am. Half an hour later hosts the nationally televised “International Newspaper Tossing Challenge.” A paper boy in his youth, the 82 year old told shareholders in his latest annual letter that he’s keen to take on the “tossing talent” from BRK’s newly acquired newspapers. The contest involves a 35-foot toss of a rolled up newspaper onto the porch of a Clayton Homes model (“no rubber bands” WEB emphasises).
- Official proceedings start at 8:30am when the hour-long Berkshire Movie is aired. It’s always a treat, featuring some serious stuff but mostly good-natured joking between Buffett and a host of celebrities from athletes to the movie stars that he always gets to participate (at no fee of course).
- At precisely 9:30 Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger get a rock star welcome as they walk onto a small stage well stocked with Coca Cola and Peanut Brittle. Apart from a break for lunch, they spend the next five and a half hours answering questions.
- The format of the questioning has changed over the past few years with the first-come-first-serve affair for shareholders having been dispensed with. That always led to a scrum in the minutes after the 7am door opening as would-be questioners rushed to head the queue at one of 13 microphones dotted around the arena. It also produced inappropriate behaviour as activist groups started targeting the platform to showboat. The process is now more formalised: a draw is done at microphones to select 18 shareholders who get to pose a question. Another 18 questions are spread between three investment analysts (six each); and 18 more come from three financial journalists who split them between their own thoughts and the best of the emails they’ve receive
- WEB is doing his best to toughen up the questioning. This year he has included one Douglas A Klass (64), a well-known Berkshire Bear as one of the three investment analysts. The Palm Beach-based money manager who runs Seabreeze Partners Management and writes a column for thestreet.com, has promised to give Buffett a rough ride. The Berkshire chairman has challenged the Bear to try drop the BRK share price 10% (so he can buy some more…..).
- Buffett will be too busy answering questions during the day, but many look forward to hearing from him more often than this once a year event. On Thursday Buffett joined Twitter (@warrenbuffett – when you follow, check that it’s the official one with the blue tick) and by Saturday morning he’d already attracted 350 000 followers. Only two tweets so far: The first done for the camera when Fortune TV filmed him typing “Warren Buffett is in the house” and his second, also on Thursday, promoting his article in the magazine: “Read my new essay on why women are key to America’s prosperity: http://cnnmon.ie/18eXfik .”
- I’ll also be trying something different this year by using Twitter as the primary source of recording the event. Hope to take you into the Press Skybox – without you having to spend the R4 000 a night for a hotel room next to a railway track!
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