A recognition evening, not a gala. Three and a half hours, the awards done properly, and everyone home by ten.
Why this is not the retail version
The comparison is our own I-01 Year in Review at AED 700 — the full gala, five hours, ballroom, band, the whole production. That is the right package for a company marking a year. This is for a company marking people, and the two are not the same event.
What is deliberately removed: the ballroom, the band, the five-hour running order, the dress code and the going-home-to-change. What that removes with it is the reason half the workforce quietly does not attend a gala.
What is deliberately kept, and where the money goes: every recipient walks, every recipient is photographed individually, and every citation is read out loud. That last one is the whole package. The standard corporate failure here is a list of names read at speed while people eat — and the person who gave a company fifteen years hears their name in a list. Twenty-five citations at forty seconds each is seventeen minutes, and it is the seventeen minutes the evening exists for.
The named photograph set is the second thing. Every recipient gets a proper photograph of themselves receiving their award, delivered as a file with their name on it. People keep those. They do not keep a group shot from a gala.
Sell this to a company with more than thirty long-service recipients and no appetite for a gala, and sell it alongside I-01 rather than against it — a client can genuinely want both, in different quarters.
The day, minute by minute
Stated up front so there is nothing to argue about at invoice time.
| Long-service film — interviews with recipients, 4 min | AED 6,500/event |
|---|---|
| DJ and dancing after the awards | AED 900 |
| Live band | AED 7,500/event |
| Upgrade to a plated dinner | AED 100/person |
| Premium awards — crystal, engraved brass | AED 140/recipient |
| Partner invitations | Priced per person |
| Printed programme with all citations | AED 25/person |
| Photo-booth with branded prints | AED 3,200/event |
Who you are actually booking with
The company picnic, properly produced. Inflatables, food trucks, a stage and a kids' zone — built for 250 people of whom half are under twelve.
An Emirati National Day celebration that is not a table of dates and a flag. Ayyala performers, a majlis build, a proper Emirati buffet and an MC who can host in both languages.
A corporate iftar done properly. Majlis setting, the call to prayer, and the whole company breaking fast at one table.