The Dublin Convention Centre, which is due to be completed in 2010, has already secured two major conferences, and taken a further 35 provisional bookings up to 2015.

The British Orthopaedic Association will bring 1,000 delegates to the centre in September 2011, and a European medical conference is confirmed for September 2010, bringing 750 delegates to Dublin. Of the 35 provisional bookings, three-quarters are international.

Delegate numbers for these conferences range between 500 and 4,000. International conferences of this scale are usually booked several years in advance.

The centre is located at Spencer Dock and is due to open on September 1, 2010. It is being built by Construction Management Partnership (CMP), a joint venture partnership between John Sisk & Sons and Treasury Holdings.

It will be operated and managed by the NEC Group, which has operated similar centres in Britain.

The centre is expected to attract high-spending business tourism when it is built, while delegates attending such events will often extend their stay in the country.

Independent estimates have projected that the convention centre will generate additional foreign revenue earnings of between €25million and €50million per year for the economy.

The centre will have capacity for 8,000 conference delegates and is expected to stage more than 200 events each year, hosting between 1,500 and 3,500 delegates.