I bought the some 'B' shares. To attend the AGM I think you need only one 'B' share.

So after buying the 'B' shares, I contacted my broker who guided me directly to Berkshire Hathway. I sent Berkshire the details of my shareholdings and they sent over the forms. I believe you dont need to go through this hassle, as if you take proof of your broker statements, you can get your meeting credentials straight away.

Then I had to book my flights and accomodation in Omaha. Being new to the place, I had no idea where to book or what to expect.
First things first - youll have to cab it everywhere - the distances in the US are just mind boggling and there was no good public transport. I stayed near the airport (Eppley Airfield. It is nicer than JKIA and they call it an airfield).

There were three main locations surrounding the meeting. The first was Borsheims, which is a jewellery shop owned by Berkshire. Here on Friday night, they have a kind of cocktail party (but with so many people!). It really is your first glimpse into Berkshire Hathaway's shareholders. I got to speak to all sorts of people, some serious investors, some 'crazy' cool Americans, a number of international people. It was amazing!

The next day, Saturday, is the main event. I got up early and got into queue at 5am. I quickly realised that you dont necessarily need to do this as the hall is quite huge, but if you want a good spot, I recommend going quickly down (not Up the escalators) and sitting directly infront of where Warren and his partner in crime Charlie Munger sit.

The meeting started at I believe 830AM. Once you get a place, reserve it, and then go to the area where all the companies are presenting. Warren came in early and met with a number of shareholders there. I wish I had known.

The meeting itself is interesting, all the shareholders get the opportunity to pick up a ticket to speak. The lucky ones who get chosen can go an ask Warren and CHarlie questions from the 7-9 speakerphones around the hall. There were about 35,000 people there when I went. I was told these were fewer numbers than the previous year.

I highly recommend that you read the different books and articles I mentioned above before going. If you get the chance to ask a question, you want it to be a smart questions. The shareholders were not all financially savvy and asked questions which had very obvious answers. I felt that it was a bit of a waste of time. But Warren and Charlie are smart, they answered many questions in such a way that they were teaching the shareholders things, even if the question was a waste per se.

Those guys eat chocolate (See's candies) and soda (coke, cherry coke) all the time! After all they are marketing the Berkshire companies.

The meeting itself was interesting and there were a number of interesting points that the two spoke about. I will have to dig it up and post my notes later.

I highly recommend buying the lunch voucher. With 35,000 people, the queues to buy hot dogs and stuff was insane.

After the meeting finished, I got to travel to the NetJets hangar, where NetJets were showing off private planes. (Net Jets is the largest fractional owned private jet company in the world and a subsidiary of Berkshire).

All along these points, I got to meet some very interesting, very smart people. It really opened up my eyes to how big Berkshire is, and I am sure I still have no idea.

On Saturday night, I went to the Nebraska Furniture Mart for a barbeque dinner. Again met a number of interesting people there, but at this point, a number of people had not turned up. If you want to do IT shopping while in the US, I think NFM is a good place as they give you shareholder discount.


Sunday, was a full day event at Borsheims. Here I got to see Bill Gates playing bridge with Warren. Warren sold so much jewellery to different shareholders .... I am not sure of the final results, but I hear the numbers were amazing. You can, if you know how to play bridge, play with the guys, if youre lucky.
You can also play chess with some grandmaster and table tennis with Ariel HSing, who represented the US at the London Olympics.

It really was an interesting experience.

In the late evening, people peeled off home and that was really the end of the AGM.

On Sunday night I went to Gorat's stake house in an attempt to enjoy the "delicious" food Warren is known to eat all the time. It was not that amazing. But a cultural vist all the same....met some really interesting people here too!


On Monday, having travelled to the US, I visited Berkshires offices (But ofcourse nobody just gets through to meet hte man himself). Still I heard that Buffett met with CNBC at a diner right near my hotel and I missed it.

I also went to see the guys house, which is quite simple. You have houses in Kenya which are much much larger.

Finally, I also recommend you visit conferences around Omaha before the AGM. I visited one at Creighton University and the other one at UNO (University of Nebraska Omaha)..Here you get more finance professionals, focused value investors.


Ok Ive been typing for sometime now...fire away with any questions you may have!

Nope...

Buffett is a boring old man, if you follow his investment advise you'll die average.

The one I recommended is actually by Lowenstein, it was a good read coz its a biography of his life and takes you through all the stages he went through before he became the Buffett we know.
I wonder if there are more people interested in going coz we can go as a group and split costs, I'm all about being frugal. I would be willing to handle logistics, hotel reservations, car rental if there was a serios group of people interested.

All right, thanks for the recommendation...I shall read that book later this year

Which stock certificates did you get? I thought they no longer issue stock certificates, or did you just print out your brokerage account? So do you just show this cert at the gate or do you actually have to register online for the conference? Is it a one day thing or a 3 day conference? Assuming you bought the stock from Kenya, how easy/difficult was it? Did you have to get a tax ID number or just your Kenyan PIN was sufficient?

I didnt get stock certificates, just an electronic proof that I had bought those shares and that they were in my account at the time of the AGM.

But remember, I obtain my meeting pass before the AGM..but in my interactions with a lady at Berkshire, she said as long as I broughy my broker statements and picture ID to the Century Link centre in Omaha on the Friday before the shareholder meeting, somebody would be able to sort me out.

Still, for international travellers, for peace of purpose, I would suggest speaking to your broker and they would guide you on how to get the meeting credentials before hand.

It is essentially a one day conference, but with the three days of activities around it.

I did not buy it from Kenya - I was fortunate enough to have an online trading account in the UK through a friend (my friend and I had gone together).

However, if you want to invest in the US, I was told that TD Ameritrade might be able to hook you up with an account if you speak to them.

Alternatively, I think if you speak to Citi in Kenya or HSBC (I believe they have an office near Riverside Mews), I am sure they would be able to hook you up.

Let me give you an idea of the kind of people you might get to meet there..

http://www.valueinvestorconference.com/

Obviously, I couldnt afford that conference and it wasnt really value for me as I am a small investor, but if you are lucky, you might get to speak to some of these people as part of the AGM itself.

Wow so the market cap to GDP of Kenya is quite high! Even compared to a number of countries around the world..
http://data.worldbank.or...icator/CM.MKT.LCAP.GD.ZS

Wazuans,

Allow me to share the various summaries of this year's shareholder meeting ...

http://dealbook.nytimes....13-shareholder-meeting/

Twitter Hash Tag - #BRK2013

https://www.youtube.com/...wQ&feature=youtu.be
A brief summary of the company