Warren Buffett will host Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting Saturday, May 2, but it won’t resemble the “Woodstock for Capitalists,” as the event is famously known, of prior years. Shareholders—some 40,000 of whom typically attend annually—aren’t welcome in Omaha, Neb. this year due to social distancing requirements necessitated by the coronavirus.
“We won’t ask this of our employees and we won’t expose Omaha to
the possibility of becoming a ‘hot spot’ in the current pandemic,” Buffett wrote in a letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders on March 13.
Even Charlie Munger, Berkshire’s vice chairman who typically fields shareholder questions alongside Buffett during the meeting, will not attend this year. Instead, Greg Abel, vice chairman of non-insurance
operations for the conglomerate, will be the only other board member physically in attendance at the meeting besides Buffett himself.
And in lieu of the bonanza of Buffett-themed souvenirs from Berkshire-owned brands sold right outside the meeting hall (for starters, Brooks running shoes with Buffett’s likeness printed on their insoles; “Warren & Charlie” rubber duckies from Oriental Trading; and plenty of See’s Candies), the company has posted promotional offers online.
Here’s what else you need to know.
When is the Berkshire Hathaway meeting?
The meeting kicks off at 4:45pm ET on Saturday, May 2. That’s a later start than usual for the event, which has historically been an all-day affair, with Buffett fielding questions from shareholders in the audience.
With no one in the crowd this year, the meeting will likely be much shorter—though Buffett and Abel will still answer questions selected by journalists from shareholders’ submissions. Instead of three journalists alternately asking questions as in the past, a single journalist, CNBC’s Becky Quick, will pose all of them.
Where can you watch it?
For the fifth year in a row, Yahoo Finance will stream the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on its website.
“Charlie and I will miss you, but we will see many thousands of you next year,” Buffett wrote in his letter.