The invites for Alibaba.com CoCreate 2026 are rolling out, so I wanted to break down whether this event is actually worth going to. I went to both the Vegas and London events last year, met the president of Alibaba.com, and got a real feel for what you do and don't get out of it. In this video I cover exactly what CoCreate is, what tickets cost, what I spent on flights and hotels, and the three things that made it worth the money for me: sourcing products directly from suppliers, the programming and breakout sessions, and the operators and investors you end up in a room with. The theme this year is "Make It Real," and it's built almost entirely around AI agents that do actual work for your business, which is exactly what we talk about on this channel. I also cover the free passes CoCreate gives away every year and how to apply for one before they're gone. If you're building an e-commerce brand, sourcing a product, or trying to figure out where agentic AI fits into your operations, this should give you enough to decide.
CHAPTERS: 0:00 The CoCreate 2026 Invite That Just Hit My Inbox 0:17 What This Video Covers: Cost, Value, and Free Tickets 0:28 What Is Alibaba.com CoCreate? 0:44 Keynotes, Workshops, Pitch Competition and 1-on-1 Matchmaking 1:01 CoCreate 2026 Theme: AI Agents That Do Real Work 1:21 "Make It Real" and Why It Applies to Your Business 1:32 CoCreate Ticket Prices: $149 to $999 1:44 Real Cost Breakdown: Tickets, Flights and Hotels 1:57 Value 1: Sourcing Products and Meeting Suppliers In Person 2:33 What's Actually on the CoCreate Show Floor 2:52 Suppliers From Korea, Italy, Japan and Beyond China 3:10 Value 2: The Talks, Speakers and Programming 3:19 Why Breakout Rooms and Fireside Chats Beat the Main Stage 3:37 2026 US Programming: Agentic Business Lab and Session Lineup 4:13 Value 3: The People You Meet 4:21 Operators and Investors in the Same Room 4:40 How Harrison Raised $100K at CoCreate at Age 15 4:58 Is CoCreate 2026 Worth It? My Honest Verdict 5:26 How to Get a Free CoCreate 2026 Pass 5:45 Best Case vs Worst Case If You Go 5:55 Comment "CoCreate" for the Link
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The speaker discusses the Alibaba.com Co-create 2026 event, a flagship business and AI conference. He shares his positive experiences from previous years and explains the event's focus on AI agents and \"making it real.\" He breaks down the costs, the value of attending for sourcing and networking, and how viewers can apply for free passes to attend.
So guys, this just showed up in my inbox.
This is an invitation to alibaba.com co-create 2026.
I'm going with a bunch of people I know this year.
And if you remember from last year, I was at both the Vegas and the London
events, got to do a lot, see a lot, talk to a lot of amazing people, including
the actual president of alibaba.com.
And so in this video, I'm going to break down whether you should go exactly what
the cost is, and then also potentially at the end, how you can go for free.
So if you're new here, co-create is alibaba.com flagship business and AI
events, it takes place over two days with over 200 suppliers and over 15,000
buyers, sellers, and founders under one roof.
And then programming includes keynotes, workshops, a massive startup pitch
competition, and then also one-on-one matchmaking sessions, which are kind
of like speed dating for business.
So with that, you sit down with someone new, you have a focused one-on-one
conversation, and you see if there's a potential opportunity there to work
together.
And the focus this year is what we talk about all the time on this channel.
That's AI agents that do real work on your behalf.
So it's about how AI agents are already materially helping businesses source
products, optimize operations, and accelerate their growth.
And their theme for 2026 is make it real.
And so if you have a business, a product, something in mind, maybe this, I hope at
least is your sign to go out there in the real world and make it happen.
Now, in terms of last year and what you pay, tickets range from $149 up to $999.
Now again, in a minute, we'll talk about how you can potentially get a free ticket.
Last year, I paid about $200.
I think $199 for a premium ticket.
Lunch and food was included.
Flights were about $600 round trip, and then hotels were about $500.
So that's the number of the cost.
It's not nothing.
And then versus the cost side, let me walk you through the return side of that, or
what I think is valuable if you want to decide whether to attend or not.
I'd say category number one there is just actually finding suppliers because you get
to see these products and meet the suppliers and the business owners on the
ground, and they're all in one place.
So if you want to actually source a product for your audience as a creator for
your existing e-commerce business or for a new business and a new product, you
might want to figure out how to sell or solve the marketing side of, then this is
an efficient way to do that without spending all that money to go to China and
visit those suppliers over there in person.
The floor itself covers virtually every industry you can think of.
No, you're not going to find everything there.
It's a few hundred suppliers, but those suppliers each have multiple products and
net it is a lot for you to source from.
But like, when I say each of these suppliers has multiple products that can
range up into the dozens or hundreds, and this isn't just from China, we're talking
Korea, Italy, Japan, all over Asia.
These are basically just the factories that do power a significant volume of the
products on alibaba.com.
And category two is just what I learned through the programming.
There were a lot of talks, a lot of pretty incredible speakers as well.
What I recommend is don't just listen on the big stage to the talks, but actually
go to the fireside chats, the breakout rooms, because then you get a more kind
of intimate feel and more specific actionable knowledge from the more focused
sessions versus the big stage, a little bit more general talk.
And so for example, if you look at this year's US programming, you have things
like an agentic business lab that takes you from an idea to a product to a
fully agentic business.
Again, that's a lot about what we talk on this channel.
And then there's also sessions like is a 30 day product possible?
When will the first billion dollar one person business arrive?
And then how did we become an agentic business?
So again, the whole thing is AI and agentic business ops and growth and
ideation.
So if that's something you're interested in, again, I highly recommend finding and
going to those breakout sessions, fireside chats, et cetera.
And then third and finally, it's the people.
Again, I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of pretty incredible folks in London
and Vegas.
Now we talked about suppliers already.
I'd say the two other categories to think about are number one, other operators
and number two investors.
Cocreate has all of those people in the same environments.
Other operators are just people to chat with and learn from.
There are a lot of people.
I'm talking to thousands of people like that there.
And then also real investors writing very real checks.
I think I've told you guys the story of Harrison before.
This is a guy that DM'd me like four or five years ago.
I got to meet him in person finally a few years later at Cocreate.
And then he walked away with a hundred thousand dollars.
This is real.
You can Google it from investors to go grow his business.
And I think he was 15 when he got that investment.
And overall, Cocreate is bigger and better this year.
I think it's been bigger and better every year that they've done it at least to
date.
And the theme again is agentic AI and business ops.
So it's exciting.
There's more of everything.
It's a very relevant theme.
And that absolutely for me makes it worth the investment.
And for you, that's up for you to decide.
I have a little suspicion that for a lot of you, it does check those return boxes.
But that in mind, what about the free passes?
So what Cocreate does is each year they give away a limited number of completely
free passes that you can apply for.
It costs nothing to apply.
These things do go really, really fast.
And if you get them worst case, you spend a few days around some really awesome
operators and founders and investors.
Best case that materially changes the trajectory of your business.
So go comment, Cocreate in the comment section.
If you want a link to that, generally you can learn more by just Googling
Alibaba.com Cocreate.
And I hope to see you there in person at any of the Cocreate events in 2026.
I'm looking forward.
We're going to have a lot of fun and I'll see you there.
Cheers.
