The Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha has functioned for decades as something between a shareholder event and a secular pilgrimage. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger — and then Buffett alone after Munger’s death in 2023 — provided the gravitational pull. The event drew tens of thousands to Nebraska each May to hear Buffett speak about investing, business, and occasionally the state of the world, in a format that was unreplicable because it depended entirely on a specific person being alive and willing to hold court.