lance2210

Hi Oddball, I went to Fairfax AGM last year and i wasn't a shareholder. More curious to see if it compared to Berkshire. Most likely this is my one and only meeting I will attend. Okay I'm from Australia, and my friends in Connecticut drove me all the way from near Hartford. We stayed midtown at the Courtyard Marriott and the carparking rate was C$32 valet or you can selfpark across the road in a garage for C$27. The day of the dinner if you are a full-on investment nut and have a few $$$$$ to spend, there is the Ivey School of Business Value Investing Conference which is at the same venue of the dinner at the Fairmont. Hereis the link http://www.bengrahaminvesting.ca/Outreach/2013_Conference.htm For myself, as a high school teacher who isn't loaded - the NHL Ice Hockey Hall of Fame was my choice and i spent three hours and had a great time with the exhibits. CN Tower and the Air Canada Centre is also nearby. In 2013, Parsad (totally awesome dude) organised with Fairfax a small bus (i think it had about 25 seats) and we visited the stores that Fairfax own for roughly a two-hour tour. One was William Ashley, which is a giftwear store. I'm a single bloke so totally out of my element here. However it had a dark chocolate section Teuscher Chocolate of Switzerland and we got this 30% gift certificate only if you spent $150. We had to pool our purchases to get the discount but it was pretty yummy. http://williamashley.com/web/ The second place we went on the tour is Sporting Life. This is a high-end clothing store mainly focused on sporting accessories like Canada Goose ski jackets. They also provided us with another discount coupon that was the same discounts as William Ashley. The dinner itself is a good feed. There is usually a charity talk from the Chrone's Foundation which is pretty worthy and then the star attraction of Prem and his managers appear. Prem gives a quick talk and then disappears to prepare for the AGM and then it is Q&A time of the various FFH managers which runs for around two hours or so. After the talk, the managers usually get bailed up individually outside the function room surrounded by eager investment minds and this can run up to midnight. AGM Day We arrived on the subway and got to the Roy Thompson Hall around 9am which was pretty busy. We just had to sign an attendance slip saying we weren't shareholders but i got to ask Prem a question at the AGM anyway. All the companies have their brochures and marketing materials. I had to leave to go to Montreal around 12pm but they were serving food back in the main foyer. The ground floor of the auditorium fills out pretty quickly but there's plenty of room on the other floors i felt. Hope this helps, as my school students would say - YOLO! (You only live once).

Hi Parsad, thanks for organising a lovely event. Just bought 2 dinner tickets all the way from Australia. Should be in your paypal account soon.

Hi everyone from Australia. :) I just love this board and learning so much more about value investing and am definitely coming to the 2013 Meeting. Just a couple of questions from a newbie. a) Does the whole of the Roy Thompson Hall fill out with shareholders? Do they check for shareholder credentials? b) How long does the whole meeting take and what time does it start. I have only been to Berkshre Hathaway's meeting once in 2010. Thanks I will definitely go to Parsad's awesome pre-meeting dinner and look forward to meeting you all. I look forward to your learned answers!

You can buy the pass on ebay and last year Berkshire were selling unlimited passes to defeat any profiteering. I went two years ago and I recommend a car rental as coming from Australia, this was my one and only time. Admitally i booked like 5 months ahead and the car rental was only $110 for three days. The car is good for checking out Council Bluffs, Iowa across the river if you are a railroad fan as the Union Pacific Railroad museum is here. The car is also good for going to the airport to check out Netjets as the private aviation terminal is on the other side of the passanger airport. Other stuff to check out is (a) the Bob Kerrey footbridge between Iowa and Nebraska, (b) Buffett's house which he has lived for over 50 years, © Buffett biographer - Author reception at Mammel Hall, University of Nebraska - Omaha (moved from Dairy Queen) (d) Boystown Hope you have fun at the AGM - definitely one of my things crossed off my bucket list!

As an Australian, property is way expensive (as a future first homeowner, i am projecting a $100k deposit for a house :() but not due to overvaluation but due to lack of supply that hasn't kept up with demand. However we are not in a bubble if we measure it compared to the realestate flipping of the States with their CDO's, NINJNA's etc. As well our laws are different, from what i understand in the US, one can walkaway from a mortgage fairly easily. It's almost a There was a http://www.news.com.au/business/economist-steve-keen-loses-housing-bet-against-rory-robertson/story-e6frfmbi-1225793985120 famous bet between a pessimistic economist and an interest rate strategist at an IB about house prices and this included during the GFC. Anyway you could have made money shorting the banks during the GFC as the big 4 lost half their market cap but they have now recovered, but we have the Government Deposit guarantee http://www.guaranteescheme.gov.au/, as unfortunately like Citigroup, they are now in the "Too Big to Fail" category so govt will always step in. As well the top 2 of the big 4 got even bigger as they were able to buy the number 5 and one of the challenger banks ranked 7th as they had effectively runout of liquidity during the crunch. However long-term Australian residential property is a secure investment most of the time. So http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Popping-the-hedge-funds-bubble-pd20100909-94UB9?opendocument&src=rss Jeremy Grantham, you will have egg on your face!

I agree, thanks Parsad from Sydney, Australia!

Because under WEB, you still get to run the show unless you cockup such as Rich Santuelli at Netjets or General Re - all you have to do is send your excess capital to Omaha. In comparison, with other acquiring companies want to install their management and procedures. You'll get a 12 month contract to consult but then you are on your own.

To manualofideas I think your second paragraph is a bit unfair on Alice. Coming into before the interviews I though Alice had a vendetta against WEB and Munger - like a spurned suitor but i am really enjoying the interviews as it shows another side to her. i'll wait until all the interviews are published before i make a considered opinion. Cheers

All the 10K and 10Q should now be available on the Internet. Seriously it'll take quicker to download the required documents on their websites than it did to compose that message to initiate this discussion. Sorry mate, no sympathy from me.

This is from today's Times of London Newspaper: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/consumer_goods/article6982290.ece IMHO: I would like Cadbury to remain independent and they make better chocolate than Kraft really. But it's up to the board of directors and shareholders to decide what price, their slice of ownership is really worth.