A management shakeup and the arrival of construction crews at downtown Cincinnati's convention center are having the desired impact on convention bookings.

The Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau now predicts it will finish 2004 with signed contracts for future events that will fill about 113,000 hotel rooms. That would represent a 56 percent increase over last year's performance and reverse a three-year slide in convention bookings.

Through Aug. 31, the bureau has signed contracts for 106 future conventions promising to fill 55,268 hotel rooms in future years. In addition, the bureau has secured verbal commitments for another 77,000 room nights. If it can convert those verbal commitments to signed deals by year end, the total room nights booked this year will eclipse 132,000, a three-year high.

Planners seem genuinely excited about changes at Cincinnati's new convention center, which is undergoing a $145 million remodeling and expansion that will let bureau staffers book two large events in the building at the same time and boast the Midwest's largest ballroom.

While bookings are moving in the right direction, they still don't compare to 2001, when the bureau booked 152,000 hotel room nights, less than half of its 325,000 room nights goal. Since 2001, the bureau has lowered its booking goal four times. The current goal is to book 110,000 future room nights in 2004.