Dubai Shopping Festival brought to a close with awards ceremony

Dubai: The 2008 Dubai Shopping Festival was brought to a close with an awards ceremony on Sunday night. The ceremony was attended by Shaikh Maktoum bin Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai; Shaikh Ahmad bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of the DSF Supreme Committee, and a host of other officials and dignitaries. The ceremony, at the Raffles Hotel, began with a visual presentation of the highlights of this year’s festival. Later an awards ceremony was held to reward contributions to the festival. Gulf News was amongst the big winners on the evening, with six awards for its journalsm. Brigadier Mohammad Ahmad Al Marri, a member of DSF Supreme Committee said DSF had attracted more than 28 million visitors between 1996 and 2007. DSF 2008 Innovation Award * Best Shopping Mall Promotion: Deira City Centre * Best Shopping Mall Décor: Dubai Festival City * Best Shopping Mall Event: Mercato. * Best Retail Promotion: Jashanmal * Most Attractive Point of Sale Display: Paris Gallery and Hyper Panda. * Outstanding Customer Service: Dubai Gold & Jewellery Group * Outstanding Promotional Campaign: VISA International and DAMAC. Journalism Award 2008 Arabic language * Jameela Ismail from Al Khaleej won the first place for Best Local Feature followed by Shereen Farooq, also from Al Khaleej. * In the DSF Prolific Writer category, Abdul Men’em Ashadeedhi from Al Bayan took the first place while Dia Abdul Aal from Al Bayan came second. * Al Bayan took the prize for the Best Design Layout award. * Salah Attiyah from Al Jamhouriya Daily, Egypt, took the honours in the Best Pan Arab Feature while the second place was shared by Bady Al Badrani from Ar – Riyad Daily and Ali Alkhahais from Ar-Riyad Daily. * In the Best Magazine Feature category, Gina Tadrous Ayyoob from Al Marr Al Youm took the second place. English language * In the Best Local Feature category, Saifur Rahman, from Gulf News, won the first place followed by Linda George, also from Gulf News. * The DSF Prolific Writer Award went to Kelly Crane from Gulf News, while Jyoti Kalsi, also from Gulf News, took the second place. * The Best Design Layout was won by Khaleej Times and the award handed to Mohammed Aroos. * In the Best Magazine Feature Award, Pratibha Umashankar from Khaleej Times took the first place while Indrani Mishra, from Gulf Today, took the second spot. Photography Awards In the DSF Celebrations category: * Shivram Nair from Khaleej Times, won the first place, * Devadasan and Arshad Ali, both from Gulf News, shared the second place. * Walid Kaddourah from Al Bayan took the third place. In the DSF Shopping category: * Ashraf Al Omra from Al Bayan won the first place * Haider Hasan Fouad from Al Khaleej coming a close second. * Yousuf Salim Younis Al Amir from Al Khaleej was given a special award for his entry. Ideal Arab Mother and Family Awards * His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum also gave away the Ideal Arab Mother award to Shamsa Hazeem Al Mehairi from UAE. * The Ideal Arab Family Award 2008 went to the family of Basit Faisal Kayed Abeidath from Jordan. Source : www.gulnews.com