It is time again for the annual trip to Warren Buffett’s Omaha to Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. Warren Buffett over the years was turned into god. He is an incredible investor, brilliantly smart, full of worldly wisdom; but, like everyone else, he gets up in the morning and puts his pants on one leg at a time, and not everything he says is the ultimate truth, and not everything he does is flawless (think Sokol/Lubrizol affair). He is very much human. So I am not going to Omaha to worship, but to listen and to learn. Though 90% of what I’ll hear I’ve heard before, it is a great time to recharge the value investing battery. But I’ll be completely honest, this weekend is not about Buffett or Munger – you could read the transcripts that will capture everything Buffett says in minute detail, in a few hours on the internet after the meeting. No, this is a weekend when I get to spend three days with like-minded people – that’s why I’ll be there.
- 12:30 to 3 pm on Friday. I’ll hold my third annual CheapTalk – You are Invited! It will be held on the campus of Creighton University at Billy Blue’s Alumni Grill (you can find directions here). This is the same place where we held it last year. As always, nothing fancy, water and thoughtful conversation. It should be a lot of fun.
- 3:30 to 5 pm on Friday, I’ll participate on the Third Annual Value Investing Panel, hosted by Creighton University, with my friendWhitney Tilson (T2 Partners), Patrick Brennan (partner at RBO & Co), Michael Green (owner of Evergreen Capital and Management in Omaha); and the panel will be moderated by Mark Mowat (managing director at Frontier Capital LLC). It is basically down the hall from Billy Blue’s Alumni Grill. Last year the panel was followed by drinks and food (not sure if that will be the case this year).
- 6 to 8 pm on Friday. Book signing with a lot of interesting authors, including two of my favorites, Jeff Matthews of Pilgrimage to Omaha fame and Pat Dorsey (The Little Book that Builds Wealth), and a very long list of other good authors (you can find more information here). Note that the location has changed from the Dairy Queen to Mammel Hall, at the corner of Pine and 67th Street on the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus.
I am taking a 7am flight out of Omaha to Denver on Sunday, meeting my wife at the Denver airport, and taking a flight to Amsterdam (just the two of us!). We’ll spend two days in Amsterdam and then drive to Den Haag, Bruges, Brussels, and Frankfurt (it’s only a 400-mile drive). I’ll give a talk on Friday in Frankfurt, then we’ll take a train to Prague, spend the weekend there, and fly to NYC.
I’m giving a speech at the Hard Assets conference in NYC on May 10th (admission is FREE with pre-registration). My brother-in-law will fly out our two adorable children, who will be missed dearly by that time, and we’ll all spend a few days being tourists in NYC. I’ve been to New York many times but never been to the Statue of Liberty.
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