A Buffett Contest

No, not a buffet eating contest. As many of you may recall, we here are big fans of Warren Buffett. Well, I'm a big fan of Buffett, I can't speak for Karl or Julio. Anyway, each year Buffett holds Berkshire's annual meeting on the first Saturday in May (May 2 this year) in Omaha. The gathering is sometimes called "Woodstock for Capitalists" on account of it being a gathering of some 30,000 [mostly] wealthy Berkshire shareholders who gather to hear the Oracle of Omaha opine on a rich variety of subjects for nearly the whole day.

Warren is famous for treating his shareholders like partners, giving anyone who rises to the microphone a chance to ask questions about the company they own with him. He has been so generous with his time, that many of the questions are entirely irrelevant to Berkshire. In past years we've suffered through such things as protests against a hydroelectric dam, a shareholder wanting to know if Buffett has found Jesus Christ, and all manner of "what should I do with my life" sort of questions. Recognizing this, Buffett will be taking questions selected by three annointed reporters. The reporters are tasked with choosing from questions submitted to them from the public and ensuring that at least 50% have to do with Berkshire specifically. With this new policy, this year's meeting ought to be particularly telling about Berkshire's future, the thought processes of the Oracle and the world's current state of affairs.

Just as Warren considers his investors partners, we here consider our readers partners and would like to take one of you to the meeting with me. I have an extra pass to this year's meeting and if you'd like to attend at no charge email us something (travel, room, etc is not included, I offer only one pass giving access to the meeting, though if logistics work out, I might treat you to dinner after the meeting). What sort of email is worthy? We'll leave that bit of creativity to you. It could be something you wrote for us to publish, a suggestion, an idea for a post or something funny. I'll choose one submission on a whim based on no specific criteria (but not randomly either) and alert the winner. The winner will be selected this Friday, so submissions must be in by the time I log in on Friday morning. Keep in mind that your email is fair game for us to do with as we please (no purchase necessary, insert legal jargon here, odds of winning are unknown, more legal stuff, we reserve the right to do as we please with this contest and make no representations, warranties, guarantees, promises or whatever, you get the drift, blah blah; you'll have to share your address to get the pass mailed to you though which I promise won't be used for anything else). Good luck and I hope to meet you in Omaha.