While I missed the annual meeting this year (after enjoying my time there in 2016 and 2017), I eagerly devoured all the related content pouring out of Omaha. I’m glad to report that Warren & Charlie are still at the top of their game, and I continue to be amazed by their desire and ability to engage on any and all topics, both intelligently and with insane levels of detail, for hours on end.

There will be no escaping NBA fandom in the coming months – and that’s just the way the league wants it. When it comes to brand exposure, there’s a lot we can learn from the NBA’s successful approach to fan engagement.

Philly fans may not have made a universally popular name for themselves, but their approach to purposeful identity is something to consider.

A a recent Deloitte survey indicates that Americans plan to spend a majority of their holiday shopping budget online. Meanwhile, in a major Pitney Bowes study of retailers and consumers from around the world, almost half of respondents reported issues, frustrations and an overall experience that did not meet their expectations. So everyone is doing it while almost half of us seem to hate it. What gives?

We often forget what large swaths of New York used to be like. This was made clear to me recently during a fascinating session with Douglas Blonsky, President of the Central Park Conservancy and perhaps the single biggest reason the park appears the way it does today.

I have been giving this idea of “Change = Hope, but not necessarily Progress” a lot of thought recently. The litany of egregious missteps, cultural issues and backwards policies do not get solved just by changing out the CEO. 

The full quote — “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics” — has been attributed to Mark Twain, who himself attributed it to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who might never have said it in the first place. Regardless of the origin of the phrase, it is one that I hold near and dear. I’m a numbers geek. Love numbers and statistics. Always have, always will.

Last year was my first visit to the land of Omaha and the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, and I took it all in, from the stadium teeming with people to the merchandise being hawked everywhere. It was a fascinating experience. So fascinating, in fact, I wrote a three-part treatise on it. And so much so that I had to go back again this year.

I attended the 20th Annual Milken Institute Global Conference. The “Davos of the West” brings together speakers from the worlds of politics, finance, entertainment, and technology to discuss issues facing the world. This year’s theme was “Building Meaningful Lives,” and many of the discussions took on this area, with panels on healthcare in the developing world, aligning endowment investments with non-profits’ philanthropic missions, and improving public education.

What was different this year is that it came right on the heels of my attendance at the 20th Annual Milken Global Conference in Beverly Hills. The more I thought about both conferences, the more I wondered if the “Woodstock of Capitalism” nickname really held true. I began to wonder if maybe the Milken Global Conference was actually more like Woodstock and the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting was something more akin to Mecca.