CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Entrepreneurs' Organization attracts an exclusive group of strivers. Its members not only run successful companies that they started, they tend to burn the candle at both ends.

EO members are the kind of people who run ultra marathons, speed-learn Chinese or climb Kilimanjaro on their way to the next idea.

Adam Kaufman thought of that when he was asked to organize EO's first conference in Cleveland. His anxiety dissolved into astonishment when "EO Thrive Cleveland", which begins Wednesday at the new Westin Hotel downtown, sold out weeks in advance and still people clamored to get in.

"We're actually oversold," Kaufman, 43, the founder and manager of a business consultancy in Rocky River, said Friday. "We have people calling us saying, 'Can I bring someone. Can my friends come?' I got a call today from Alaska, believe it or not."

An agenda that features Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and dogfights over Lake Erie is no doubt part of the draw. But convention and visitor specialists suspect Kaufman and his local EO peers are also benefiting from a national case of Cleveland Curiosity.

Kaufman

The city is seeing a rush of business conferences and sales seminars, the kind of work-and-play gatherings that once landed elsewhere. It's what happens when your town is suddenly the object of positive news and widespread intrigue.

"We're getting more and more calls from people, from other cities, from other chambers interested in coming to Cleveland to see what's going on," said Joe Roman, the president of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the regional chamber of commerce.

Lobas

Dave Johnson can put some numbers to the anecdotal evidence. He's the director of marketing and communications for the Cleveland Convention Center. Johnson talks in terms of "since the RNC" was announced.

Since the July 9 announcement that the Republican National Convention was coming to Cleveland in 2016, the center has booked "a phenomenal" 62 events, Johnson said.

Many are medical gatherings aiming for the Global Center for Health Innovation. But about half are business conferences of all shapes and sizes: annual meetings, product showcases, regional sales meetings and financial management seminars.

The convention center is on pace to exceed its booking goals for this year and probably next year as well, Johnson said.

Woz

He credits image. The RNC began a bonfire of positive publicity further fanned by the Return of LeBron, the Gay Games, Johnny Manziel mania and news of a downtown renaissance.

Not that the past is hard to beat. Before the new convention center opened in July 2103, Cleveland had been out of the conference mainstream for 20 years.

Still, the change is remarkable, Johnson said.

"We've gone from people shrugging when we call, to people calling us," he said. "They're coming from all over."

Even from the suburbs.

David Gilbert, the president of Positively Cleveland, said Cleveland area companies are contacting his office far more frequently to ask about conference resources downtown.

"They're planning to stay in town for meetings they usually had somewhere else," he said.

Meanwhile, business and medical leaders are pitching their hometown with new intensity. Positively Cleveland has begun crowning Cleveland Champions, people who use their influence to bring the trade group to town.

Gilbert credits Jack Schron, president of Cleveland industrial supplier Jergens Inc., with helping attract the Industrial Supply Association Product Show & Conference to the convention center in April.

Forums on logistics may make Clevelanders yawn, but the economic impact -- nearly $3 million -- will have hoteliers and restaurateurs wide awake.

"I think the national reputation of Cleveland is changing -- at a more positive rate than we even realize," said Kaufman, who travels a lot for his work.

His muster of entrepreneurs, while smaller than that of the industrial suppliers, may make the bigger splash.

Paying a premium for Cleveland

EO, which began in 1988 as the Young Entrepreneurs Organization, bills itself as the world's premier networking group for entrepreneurs.

You'll need annual sales in excess of $1 million before you'll be invited to join. In the 140-member Cleveland chapter, average company revenues edge closer to $30 million.

What makes EO invaluable, its members say, is the opportunity it offers young, busy, often untried CEOs to share their travails with peers and to learn from shared experiences.

"That's very powerful," said Christine Lobas, the founder and CEO of a downtown marketing and branding firm called studiothink.

Lobas, a member of the Cleveland chapter of EO, helped Kaufman organize Thrive Cleveland. The agenda reflects the group's personality as well as its quiet, powerful reach.

In addition to Wozniak, speakers include David Pogue, a nationally renowned technology journalist and the son of Cleveland civic leader Dick Pogue. He'll play the piano and deliver after-dinner remarks at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Dr. Marc Gillinov, one of the Cleveland Clinic's top heart surgeons, will share wellness tips while Jodi Berg, the fourth generation of Bergs to run Olmsted Township-based Vitamix, will talk about injecting new life into smoothies and the family business.

This is a members-only convention, but the public may suspect something big afoot downtown. Thrive takes networking to new heights.

The conference booked a California thrill-seeking company called Air Combat. For an additional $2,500, guests can play co-pilot in a fighter plane streaking over Lake Erie and man the controls during simulated dogfights with electronic tracking.

They're also invited to tool around downtown in an Aston Martin, golf at Canterbury and take a powerboat cruise to lunch in Bratenahl.

"Our members have tried everything," Kaufman said, describing the organizer's dilemma. "They bought everything. They read everything."

Many had not, it appears, experienced Cleveland. A three-day conference planned for 200 has expanded to more than 400, making it the largest gathering ever staged by an EO chapter. Guests are arriving from 40 states, nations and islands, including India, Australia and Hong Kong.

Lobas said that kind of drawing power requires context to fully appreciate.

"We're all pretty ADD by nature," she said of her peers. "People are really guarded with their time when you own your own business, because you're so busy. If you can get a bunch of entrepreneurs excited to come to a conference, in your city, that's a coup."

Lobas started organizing Thrive a year ago, "before the RNC," as Johnson might say. She bristled at some of the jeers, the "cheeky comments" she said she heard from EO members considering a conference in Cleveland.

That conversation has changed completely, she said. And the people who waited too long, and now want to register?

"We've been charging them more to get in," she said.