Berkshire Hathaway planning in-person shareholders meeting for first time since pandemic began

Berkshire Hathaway is planning to hold its shareholders meeting in person in April, the first time the annual gathering will occur in person since the pandemic began.

The meeting, which is slated to take place on April 30, will also be available to watch online via webcast, as has been the case in past years, according to a statement from the company. The previous two gatherings took place online only, according to The Associated Press.

The company said additional information regarding the meeting will be available in the group’s 2021 annual report, which is scheduled to publish online on Feb. 26.

More than 40,000 people have attended the gathering in the past, according to the AP.

At previous shareholders meetings, people gathered together in an arena in downtown Omaha, where CEO Warren Buffett and other officials fielded questions, according to the wire service. A number of Berkshire Hathaway’s companies have also had a presence at the meeting, reportedly setting up booths and selling products in an exhibit hall next to the building.

News of Berkshire Hathaway holding its shareholder meeting in person comes as the U.S. is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases nationwide, driven largely by the highly transmissible omicron variant. Daily infections started rising in early December, though it appears that the daily case count peaked last week and is now slowly coming down, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Buffett made headlines at last year’s annual meeting when he said the economy had been “resurrected in an extraordinarily effective way” after experiencing hardships due to the pandemic.