Almost perfect

So far, things have gone pretty smoothly while planning this little trip to Omaha. When I started, there were about 20 people on the waiting list, it was expensive just to go down and back for one day, and I personally had a LOT of work to do before being comfortable with the concept of squaring off in a Q&A session with one of the smartest financial minds on the planet.

Now, there are only 2 people on the waiting list since the fence-sitters have all withdrawn, the school allocated an enormous amount of funding for the trip, and I've begun to craft a good list of questions for Mr. Buffett, to ask on March 31st. Plus, the papers have begun to cover the trip, nobody has made any of the planning difficult, and we've even been invited to a reception at the University of Omaha on the 30th, which will be nice.

All in all, I can't complain. Corralling 66 MBAs toward a common goal has been okay so far. This entry better not jinx that...

The Big News

Yesterday evening I sent out a big e-mail to all the MBA travelers on the trip, with a few action items regarding attendance at receptions, tours, and other things on and around March 31st. The biggest piece of news in the 9-point e-mail was an announcement that Ivey's Advancement department was going to heavily subsidize our travels to Omaha and back. Of course, I expected my colleagues to be happy about the news, but as with all situations involving free money, a lot of people undoubtedly wanted to know exactly how they were going to be allocated their share. I purposely didn't disclose the allocation methodology that the Professor has devised, simply to avoid getting into arguments with my fellow forensic accountants about its structure. Moreover, we're not going to be issuing reimbursements until after the trip, once everyone has submitted their qualifying travel receipts. By the end of the night, the inquiries had pretty much tailed off, but I expect another round of questions today, in class and at lunch. Argh.

On another note, I'm excited to start listening to my audio copy of The Intelligent Investor, which I bought from iTunes the other day. Besides actually reading and learning the material, I think this is one of those texts that'll get played in my car, on drives from London to Toronto and back, just to stay sharp and drive home the message. For the record, this is the first audio book that I've ever bought, so I hope the narrator helps rather than hinders the knowledge transfer process. We'll see...

The Article from the Toronto Star

"Business students get to meet investing guru Buffett"


Feb 02, 2008 04:30 AM

Talbot Boggs
SPECIAL TO THE TORONTO STAR

For years, business students have read about and studied the theories and methods of value investing guru Warren Buffett, chair and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.

Now, a select group of students from McGill University, the Rotman School of Management and University of Western Ontario's Ivey School of Business are getting the opportunity of a lifetime to meet the financial genius in person and, possibly, pitch an investment opportunity to him.

Students from the three Canadian universities will travel to Berkshire Hathaway's head office in Omaha, Neb., to tour one of its companies and then have a luncheon and question and answer session with Buffett.

"This is a great way to link textbook learning with the real world," says Matt Hertz, a student at McGill's Desautels Faculty of Management.

At the end of March, about 60 students from the Ivey School of Business will travel to Omaha for their meeting with the value investing guru.

One of George Athanassakos's mandates as chair of Ivey's Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing is to develop a program on value investing and spread the word about its methods and benefits.

What better way than to take students for an audience with Buffett?

"If Mohammed won't come to the mountain, bring the mountain to Mohammed," says Athanassakos.

"The trip isn't about learning about value investing, it's about hearing his (Buffett's) opinions, which are always very well thought out, on life, politics and other things."

The concept of value investing was first put forward in 1934 by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd in their book, Security Analysis. Buffett was a student of Graham's at Columbia University.

Media Day

I'm going to call yesterday 'Media Day' for two reasons. The first is because The Toronto Star ran an article about Ivey's trip to visit Warren Buffett in Omaha, in a special section devoted to MBA programs in Ontario. What I learned from that piece was that McGill (Montreal) and Rotman (Toronto), two of our respected competitors, are also making a similar trip this year. I have been led to believe that March 31st is Ivey Day with Warren. So, my assumption is that the other two schools are going at different times.

The second reason is that I spent two hours on YouTube, watching clips of Warren Buffett speaking to MBA students, journalists, and shareholders. I've already read a lot of his writings and books about value investing, but this was the first time that I had actually heard him speak. What strikes me about Mr. Buffett is the clarity of his thoughts and messages. I would love to see his weekly schedule/routine to find out just how much he reads. It must be volume and volumes, to be as well-informed, intuitive, and wise as he comes across. On top of that, he seems perfectly chipper at all times and excited about allocating capital.

Anyway, there's more good news to come in this blog, that I can't quite reveal yet, but involves a HUGE amount of support for our trip from Ivey...