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There is always room for improvement. That's why top students have been recruited across the GCC to give new ideas on improving the annual Dubai Summer Surprises.
The DSS Apprenticeship Programme now caters to more than 30 higher education institutions in nine markets in the Middle East and North Africa, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Qatar, Lebanon and Egypt.
For the first time this year the programme in a move to globalise the programme has recruited non-Arab students from the UK.
Suggestions
Students competed for the apprenticeships by writing suggestions on how the DSS 2008 could be expanded.
Newly graduated Lebanese national Mazen Salameh was full of suggestions for expanding the DSS event.
"I recommended that embassies could play a bigger role in promoting their country's cultures during the festival. I also suggested we have a moving carnival on the streets of Dubai with music, dancing and fireworks."
The Lebanese American University business marketing major, who had never visited the city before, says he is looking forward to visiting all the malls to experience the festival.
"I also think workshops on acting, filmmaking and theatre will be very popular with the youth," Salameh said.
Hadia Saraya, 21, of the American University in Cairo hopes to use her marketing background to offer ideas on how to intensify the event's marketing campaign.
"This is my first time in Dubai and I never thought it would be this way - the many buildings, the streets and how the city operates."
Richard Weilers, managing director of Southern Sun Middle East, said the students' participation "initiates a new vibrancy to DSS as it incorporates the ideas of young people from various parts of the region, and now the UK, as to how to enhance the event's appeal to a growing international audience".
What else is going on this DSS?
Kids, it's time to be a sport
The Kids Olympic Games 2008 kicked off this weekend at Ibn Battuta Mall as part of its DSS 2008 celebrations. Competing in 13 contests in various age categories, children were eager to participate, said organisers. The event had contests such as baby crawling, tricycle racing and car races.
Ahmad Ali, supervisor of the event, said, "Kids Olympic Games is in its sixth consecutive year and the popularity of the event as a sporting and entertainment activity has catapulted the attraction to become a Signature Event in DSS 2008."
Let them eat cake
Hundreds of shoppers flocked to Mercato to sample baked treats at the Jumeirah Giant Charity Cake Sale, a four-hour cake festival as part of the DSS 2008.
Organisers say the fifth year of the event was a hit because the deliciously crafted Dh30 cakes were sold out an hour before it ended. More than 60 executive pastry chefs from Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts prepared 3,065 cakes, which represent the total number of rooms available at Jumeirah Group's Dubai Hotels & Resorts.
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