(FORTUNE Magazine) – No matter how you measure it, Warren Buffett is larger than life-whether it's his $10.3 billion estimated net worth, or the $21,700-per-share stock price of the company he controls, Berkshire Hathaway, or the company's annual rate of return to investors--an astounding 33% since 1982. Need another barometer? Try attendance at his company's annual shareholder meeting, which has soared at a rate of 55% per year over the same period.

The affair is now a famous shindig; Buffett's straightforward discussion of financial results and his folksy answers to queries draw shareholders who wouldn't be caught dead at the tendentious proceedings of most other companies. But his popularity is such that this year Berkshire is moving its fete from the 2,750-seat Orpheum Theater to its fifth Omaha site, the more spacious Holiday Convention Centre. The Centre's main ballroom seats 3,300 and features an adjacent room equipped with closed-circuit television, so an additional 1,000 acolytes can follow the ceremonies. That's a long way from 1982, when about 15 employees and relatives gathered in the cafeteria of a subsidiary.

Future stages may be even better suited for Buffett, an occasional soap opera actor with pop star-like celebrity. Says Hathaway CFO Marc Hamburg: "Warren definitely wants to keep the meeting in Omaha, and in Omaha the only other option would be an arena where basketball is played or concerts are held."