Amid real estate expansion, here’s what’s in store at Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholder meeting

This year, an estimated 42,000 will descend into Omaha to attend Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting for shareholders.

The annual meeting comes as the conglomerate’s residential brokerage, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, is seeking to expand into new markets including New York City. HomeServices was the second largest brokerage in the country last year.

Most attendees are shareholders –many of whom made the trip for the hours-long Q&A with Warren Buffett– but members of the public can also buy tickets for the experience and rare unfiltered glimpses of Buffett. However, as the meeting has gotten more and more grandiose over time, so too has Buffett’s security and, now, lack of accessibility, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Compared to the early years’ meetings, which were held in a lunchroom where National Indemnity employees would frequently disrupt the proceedings as they grabbed a coffee, the Saturday event now is a veritable circus complete with an exhibition fair for Berkshire companies to sell products at discount prices and a Sunday morning race. [WSJ] — Erin Hudson