Thousands of fans line up outside for hours, there’s expensive merchandise and even a secret movie.
When 40,000 people descend on Omaha, Nebraska, Saturday, it might sound like a Taylor Swift concert or a Coachella-style festival.
Instead they will sit rapturously for five hours listening to a 93-year-old man answering questions on the economy — but not just any man: billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
Welcome to the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting, dubbed “Woodstock for capitalism” and compared by attendees to going to church or seeing The Beatles live.
While the annual shareholder meeting is held Saturday, the convention center opens Friday for people to pick up credentials.AP00:0003:33
Inside the CHI Health Center Omaha, ordinary shareholders mingle with celebrities — such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Murray and Glenn Close — and the biggest names in business, including Bill Gates, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, and Apple’s Tim Cook.
The annual pilgrimage to Omaha is the most fanatical followers of Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, America’s 7th largest company, which owns companies including Geico, Dairy Queen, BNSF Railway and NetJets, and large stakes in Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, Kraft Heinz and Chevron.
The cost of admission is as low as $396, a single Berkshire Hathaway class B share, but the wisdom dispensed by the man with a net worth of $132 billion is, say attendees, priceless.
Christopher Bloomstran has attended every year since 2000 — except once, when his daughter was born two weeks before the meeting— and calls it the “highlight of each year.”
Some attendees begin lining up at 3AM to prepare for a “mad dash” for the best seats once the doors open and shareholders flood into the convention center.AFP via Getty Images
40,000 people descend on Omaha, Nebraska to hear Buffett, worth $132 billion, answering questions on the economy.REUTERS
“I’ve met some of my best friends in the investment arena at the Berkshire,” said Bloomstran, who is chief investment officer of Semper Augustus Investments Group in St. Louis, Missouri.
“I go Wednesday and often stay until Monday.”
