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Qwest Center
Outside the Qwest CenterSaturday, May 2, 2009
What a day I had on my short journey to Omaha, Nebraska. My goals for today are to:
Get up at 4 am
*Meet my travel buddies Brent and Felicia at 5:15 am
*Be in the Qwest Center by 8 am,
*Learn something from Warren Buffett (WB)
*See the BYD electric car
*Find some goodies
*Be back home by 9 pm
Today will be a 16 hour travel day. Reminds me of Europe!
I’ve got good news, goals exceeded. So let me run down what we did:
3:45 am, got up and out the door by 4:40 (load of dishes and wash done before I left)
4:40 am, left for the “meet up” at the WDM Marriott
5:15 am, off we go “ bright eyes and busy tail” and ready for our “amazing adventure”
6:30 am, stopped at McDonald’s in Walnut, IA for breakfast (3 creams in my coffee please), thanks Brent for the treat!
7:30 am, at the Qwest Center, parked and on our way in to find a seat
By the time we walked in, the crowd is getting massive but manageable. One look at the arena, there’s no seating in The Qwest Center
THe Banner Welcoming Us To The BH Meeting the lower or mid level. Before we find our seats, a quick stop to the restroom. Now, finding good seats, what a crowd, can only find seats in the “nosebleed” section, 207 (second row from the top). What a climb up there, reminds me of Salzburg. Over the next 30 minutes, the arena is getting packed, reminds me of a tin of sardines or should I say a bowl of sardines.
The show began at 8:30 am with a 45 minute movie featuring the many Berkshire Hathaway (BH) companies and their managers (CEO/presidents). The movie is very funny with several clips of the GEICO commercials (gecko and the caveman).
There was a 10 minute movie of Warren Buffett (WB) working on the showroom floor at Nebraska Furniture Mart and his hand at being Tiger Woods’ caddy. The movie of WB is quite funny and it’s nice to see the second richest person in the world making fun of himself.
9:30 am, the conversation begins with Warren Buffett (WB-Chairman) and Charlie Munger (CM-Vice Chairman) introducing the Board of Directors (including Bill Gates). Yes he is here.
9:45 to 11:55: am, question and answer period, rotating from shareholders to
MAE
A World Connected, MAE View Of The Future a panel of three journalists reading questions posted by the shareholders. The topics varied with one theme in common, looking for advice and tips on the state of the economy.
12:00 pm, we broke for a 45 minute lunch. Off for a quick bathroom break and a boxed lunch from Panera Bread (vegetarian sandwich which was nearly worthless). During the break, we took the opportunity to find seats in the lower level. Score, we are now sitting in section 104. We can see the stage, CM and WB.
1:00 pm, more questions posed to CM and WB, lasting to 3:00 pm. The last question was posed by a young man and after the question/response, he asked his girlfriend to “marry him.” On full disclosure, WB shared that the young man was his relative. She said yes and how “sweet” to see (thinking of you Sarah K.).
Here’s a summary of the responses by WB and CM:
-The phrase “financial weapons of mass destruction” came up several times.
-Re: financial literacy of children, “work with the children to make them financially literate.”
-Re: secret to a good investment, “the investment should be obvious without doing a lot of
Associated Press Photo
Associated Press Photo of 35,000 People In the Qwest Center, May 2, 2009 fact checking, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” came up several times by WB.
-Re: housing market, “a market was created that could not sustain itself, too many houses in the market and not enough buyers. It will take some time, but it will come back.”
-Re: why WB does not work with his successor now to give him the benefit of his knowledge. The short answer to this, WB has his top three successors identified and they are currently managers within the BH business (no names given, but I have a strong opinion that David Sokol could be one of the three). He sees no sense in having a good manager sit with him to bounce things off of. “Good managers should be doing what they do best, manage the business they are responsible for. Sitting with me would be a waste of talent.”
-Re: nationalized health care, CM stated “the European model with supplemental insurance is a good model to mirror.” No comment from WB.
-Re: would you manage/run a business differently if you owned it 100% outright? WB stated “BH runs a company as if they owned it 100%, so the answer
Fruit Of The Loom
Ann, Brent, Felicia Posing With The Fruit Of The Loom Guys was no."
-Re: BYD, CM talked very highly of the owner, his talents, the people of China and the opportunity to revolutionize the car industry.
-Re: the amount of advertising for GEICO. They both said, it’s all about the ROI, they want everyone to think of GEICO when they think of insurance. Last year they spent several billions dollars and they would spend more if needed. Wow, what a bold statement to make.
Random sayings by WB and CM:
Authority goes with the person not the position.
Remember who gave you the pen to sign with.
Best protection against inflation is your own earning power.
Have a wonderful business with a good ear, invest in yourself.
Okay the day is not over yet. Off to the showcase room, need to find the MEC booth and the BYD electric car. During our walk, we took a picture with the Fruit of the Loom guys, went inside a fifth wheeler, bought some clips at the Papered Chef booth, saw some cute miniature ponies, met the NetJets sales team and we make a plan to go over to the NetJets hangar.
Read more here:
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One last item in the Wang Chuanfu
Ann With Wang Chuanfu, CEO of BYD showcase arena, MAE showcase. On full disclose, I work for MAE and I love my job. Today, I was never prouder to be associated with MAE. Throughout the Q&A period, WB and CM gave high praises to MAE and their subsidiaries. Over and over again, they talked about stable electric rates, clean coal technology, wind energy and gave high remarks to the management team at MAE. So I’m not going to MAE showcase to see their stuff, I’m going to see the BYD car.
The BYD car is China’s fist electric car. So not to reinvent the wheel or talk about something I know nothing about, read this link.
The best part of the day so far is that I got my picture taken with the CEO, Wang Chuanfu.
It’s 4 pm and it would be logical to go home, but no. Off to the NetJet’s hangar.
We were there for about 30 minutes and toured one of their small jets. This reminded me of the good old days at MAE, where we had use of a company jet. That was awesome!
While at the NetJet hangar, we met someone, Andy Kaplan, who was one Gecko
Gecko And The GEICO Motorycycle of the developers of Audible (digital audiobooks). We had a nice chat with him. He was there with his son, works for Microsoft in WA and his good friend from NY. Longstory short here, Andy was talking about Audible and that caught my attention (my son Robert- English major, tech and webmaster genius is a fan of Audible). So we talked and he said he was one of the original developers and I find out that he was the CFO. He was so modest. Andy is off on a new venture as the CFO for DonorsChoice. DonorsChoice is a non-profit organization that matches school projects to donors. Their mission statement: Teachers Ask, You Choose, Students Learn. What a great concept. Learn more about DonorsChoice and how you can make an impact near or far,
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Back to Andy, he and his son are in Omaha for the BH meeting and to see the NetJets fleet. They also commented on the beauty of Iowa; the people, the landscape, the fresh air and the wide open spaces. What a compliment and something us Midwesterners take for granted.
It’s now time to go, it’s 5 pm and we have to go Our Amazing Adventure
Ann, Felicia and Brent At The Qwest Center Waiting To Hear Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger home sometime. We had a great time at this event. Thanks to my travel buddies Brent and Felicia for going with me. We were among 35,000 people at the event today. That's something for the books. We had one last chat at the Villager Restaurant in Walnut, IA. We were back in Des Moines by 8 pm, beating my goal.
Here’s what I learned today:
Traveling does not have to involve jet setting to Europe, California, Washington DC and so forth.
Traveling is what you make of it; invest in it, own it, make it fun, own the destination, know what you want to see, find good people to travel with, meet new people and do something that you would not normally do.
I think we got this accomplished and did it all in one day. So where am I going next? I’ll make it fun and nearby.
I’ll be going to the Pella Tulip Festival in Pella, Iowa May 8, 2009,
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Pella will remind me of my Amsterdam travels and boy did I have fun there!
Above The Best,
Ann
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Nebraska Dating
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The great state
The perfect state, with the combination of technology and culture... Way to go Nebraska! Peace, Jen Rostt http://www.universityloveconnection.com/university-Nebraska-Dating.htm