Good Investing Talks - Tom Gayner on the Markel Brunch and the Reunion 2024

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

Tom Gayner on the Markel Brunch and the Reunion 2024

Dear viewers of good investing talks, it's great to have you back again and it's great to have Tom Gainer back again. And if he's showing up on the podcast at this time of the year, it's clear that he has matches with an inward to two events, Michael is running. The one is the Markell branch that's on the day after the Berkshire meeting, which is the 5th of May. and the second is the McHale Reunion, which is happening on the 21st and 22nd of May in Richmond. So Tom, great to have you back. Good stuff. Very nice to be back.

Very nice to see you. And very nice to participate in the chance to spread the message about trying to connect with people live and in person out in Omaha, conjunction with the Berkshire meeting, the traditional brunch we've done the day after. So Sunday, May 5th at 10 a.m., We'll be at the Omaha Marriott and would love to see you at our brunch. And then also May 21 and 22nd will be the annual meeting in Richmond, Virginia from Markell.

And happy to chat about any details or thoughts around them, but we look forward to seeing a lot of people at either or both of those events. Great. I will be at both of the events. So I'm joining the first time the Mikel reunion. I'm looking forward to it. We've already talked about the dates. If you missed the dates, there's a link below.

You can find both events and more details on it and also past recordings of the events. But maybe give us a reason why is it worth visiting both events, or at least let's start with the brunch. Why is it worth visiting? Well, the brunch is a great tradition where we started in 1991. We had six people the first year, and we just answered questions and talked to some people. But most importantly, what we did was we built some relationships. relationships. So we started out with six people and at the end of that brunch, we said we'll be back again next year. And if you know anyone who'd be interested, please bring them and we'll drink some coffee and eat some bagels and answer your questions. And year by year, over the last 30-some years, that has grown from about six people to roughly 2,000 people. And it's just a great forum for us to meet people, for the people who are there to build relationships, both with us, with the other people who, attend and probably you're hungry and need a cup of coffee and a bagel anyway. So if you're going

to be in Berkshire for Berkshire weekend, we just hope this will be a feature that's added to your agenda. So where do you find the bagels or vice versa to the 2,000 people to get to know? Well, the great thing that has happened over the years is just through word of mouth and conversations. People have come. They've had the forum to ask questions of Markell and they come again the next year and they tend to bring somebody else with them. So it's been an organic thing that has grown for over 30 years. And it's located in the Omaha downtown Marriott, if I'm right? That is correct.

The Marriott that's right across the street from the convention center where the Berkshire meeting takes place. And who will be on stage there? I think it's you and? It will be me. It will be Mike Heaton, who's the chief operating officer of the Markell Group. It'll be Jeremy Noble, who runs our insurance business. We went to Brian Costanza or a chief financial officer there.

We might have Andrew Crowley who runs Markell Venture. So it'll be some set of all of us that are there on the dais. And there'll be a number of other people from the Markell organization writ large that will be there and happy to connect and meet with people. What is the format? The format is all Q&A. So at 10 o'clock in the morning, we ring the bell. I welcome folks. and then we open the floor for questions.

There are no presentations. There's no PowerPoints. There's no movies. There's no shows. It's time for serious investors to ask thoughtful and meaningful questions that are unscripted. And we open the floor to anyone and everyone who has a question. So you just get in line and stand there and will till you're selected to ask a question. That's exactly right.

Great. So I'm looking forward to this. It's always a must to visit. this when I'm in the Berkshire meeting in Omaha so I'm looking forward to joining it again and if you're curious about it as a viewer there's also the link below where you can see an old recording of the format you can get more details and the breakfast is also is not that bad so there's a few good rejoin and let's talk about the reunion or the annual meeting maybe explain why it's not called really or called annual meeting or reunion what

What is the difference? Well, while technically it is our annual meeting, the annual meeting only occupies one time slot within the two days that people might be here. After we talked to a lot of people last year, really one of the words that came up that people used is they said it felt like a family reunion, just the feel and vibe and sensation of the meeting itself. So we thought, well, hey, that's a great idea. And since it seemed to be something that was organically bubbling up from the ground,

We said, well, let's go with that. So we're calling it the reunion. And that really is the way in which we just describe it. And I think in addition to the technical bit of the annual meeting itself, that is just one component within the reunion as a whole. Where is it taking place, and which location and which city? Thank you. That will be in Richmond, Virginia.

It will begin on May 21, so May 21 and 22nd, in addition to the link you have down there, mKL reunion.com is the place to go on the web to get the details. There are a lot of panels. There's forums. There's a walk. The company, Eagle Construction, that is part of the Markell Ventures family, is going to be hosting an open house where you can sort of see Eagle properties and how they work. So there's a ton of stuff going on, and I can't keep track of it all in my own head. So I personally refer to the, to the MKL, reunion.com website and I would encourage your listeners to do the same to get the actual details on specific times and places for the different events going on around those two days.

So it's not only you on stage all the time there, it's also other people on stage. Yes, it'll be the same set of characters we talked about with Omaha and again, because it is our annual meeting that will be, and it is in Richmond, Virginia, our hometown and where Mark there'll be a lot of Markell people from all parts of the organization all around the world that are there in attendance at that particular meeting and you were also like as you weren't on stage all the time you had a chance to listen to the conversations over the years what are maybe your takeaways what you've learned from this kind of meeting it's your own meeting but you can also take away interesting learnings from this kind of meeting well I think there's

two prime takeaways one is just the sense that when you counter the various people of the Markell organization. I would hope that you would share my sense of pride and accomplishment that there's just a lot of people around Markell who are very, very good at what they do, and they're dedicated to the success of this organization, treating people well, having fun, and when you see that systemically over and over and over again through the different people that you can encounter, I would hope that that would give you some sense. sense of comfort that this is a system that the culture of Markell that we talk about so much is indeed real, and it has seeped through a lot of people, not just me.

Secondly, I do my best learning from observing, interacting with, listening to other people, and this is a forum and an event where, again, last year we had over 2,000 people, 2,000 people that attended the Markell reunion annual meeting. And those people come from all around the world. So you're going to meet somebody who you don't know, who traveled some distance to get there, and the opportunity to share a beverage and some stories and learn from people who are walking different paths than you. I just always learned something through that. How many people are you expecting this year?

Well, I think we might have something like 3,000 this year. So in the last couple of years, we've gone from 500 to 1,000 to 2,000. So that's a pretty good trend line. And whether we're going to be linear or geometric, I don't know. Geometric would put us at 4,000. We're going to go linear and I think maybe 3,000. But it should be a good crowd. So I hope you have some bets in the team with drove rates.

And we will discuss who is lost and who has won in the next episode. But for the end, is there anything to add? We haven't touched on both events that people should know. The main point is that we would love to see you. There's just no substitute for person to person contact and conversation and allowing serendipity to happen and spontaneity in ways that you can't plan for. So I don't know what's coming, but I think it'll be fun. I think we'll enjoy some food and beverage and fellowship.

And people are going to be glad they came. I hope I will be too. And happy to see you in Omaha as well as Richmond. I'm happy to report about both events. Hopefully, let's see how the production goes on this channel. So stay tuned for some updates and some reviews on the event. Maybe you also partake in my video there. Let's see.

Happy to see you then. And bye-bye. Thank you so much. Be well.