The arena was half full. The cash pile was three hundred and ninety-seven billion dollars. Greg Abel's first annual meeting answered the question Berkshire shareholders have been asking for a decade: was the value Buffett, or the system? The CHI Health Center in Omaha was a little over half full when Greg Abel took the stage Saturday morning. In previous years, more than forty thousand shareholders packed the arena to listen to Warren Buffett. This year, noticeably smaller lines formed outside. The first annual meeting without Buffett as CEO answered a question the company's shareholders had been asking for a decade, and the answer was two different things at once. The arena proved that the draw was the person. The balance sheet proved that the value was the system. The Numbers Berkshire reported first-quarter net earnings of ten point one billion dollars, more than double the four point six billion from a year ago. Operating earnings rose to eleven point three billion.…