I’ve been back from Omaha for a few days and as for the previous editions, it was a special moment.

“What do you mean special ? Listening for a 93 years old guy a whole day ? You crazy ?”

Well… That’s just part of the story. I’ve made the trip for the third time this year so there has to be something there.

If I want to make it quick, I’d say that the most striking thing is the special atmosphere. Nothing to do with other investing events I went to. Part of that probably comes from the location itself: far from large US cities, Omaha must be earned. The journey takes time – especially from outside the US – and that’s part of the reward.

The consequence is that you meet people that are deliberately coming to this specific event so they share common traits : openness, desire to learn, kindness… That last point was certainly the one that struck me the most when I first traveled there. I had the opportunity to discuss with many people I regard as inspirational and their common ground was kindness and open-heartedness. It really echoes Buffett’s last words at AGM 2024: “I believe in trying to find what you’re good at, what you enjoy. And then I think the one thing that you can aspire to be, because this can be done by anybody and it’s amazing, doesn’t have anything to do with money. But you can be kind.”

Tom Gayner – Markel’s CEO – gave an anecdote related to these shared traits and to what makes this weekend in Omaha special. In the early 90s, they wanted to spread the word about what they were doing in order to constitute a long-term shareholder basis. Gayner recognized that people who were the most likely to understand what Markel was building were the ones who already owned Berkshire stock. What did they do ? Well, instead of asking these people to come to Richmond, Virginia, to meet them, they started their own event in Omaha and met them there. The first one hosted 6 people (Roger Lowenstein and Chuck Akre were there), the last one c2000 (talk about compound effect !). 30 years later, I think we can make a similar analysis: BRK meetings gather the largest concentration of long-term investors, so if you want to meet that breed of people, you should definitely go there.

Today you can watch the meeting at home, but I assure you being in Omaha is more than attending the meeting. Many satellite events are held and ideas circulate faster than the rest of the year. Here are some videos of different events that occurred this year (not exhaustive).
– Markel Brunch
– Gabelli Value Investing Panel
– Gabelli Berkshire Hathaway Panel
– ValueX BRK

If they spark your interest, 2025 meeting will be on May 3th. See you next year in Omaha !