The Georgia World Congress Center, one of the buildings hardest hit by Friday's tornado, will get back to business next week.

The International Window Coverings Expo is scheduled to begin Wednesday, with the National Propane Gas Association to follow during the weekend.

The conventions will be the first held since the twister brought havoc to the downtown facility, ripping crater-sized holes in the roof, sending water running down the stairs like a waterfall and shattering glass throughout.

"Atlanta is open for business," a jubilant Spurgeon Richardson, president of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, repeated often during a Wednesday news conference announcing the conventions.

"Our customers have been very understanding," Richardson said. "They have worked with us."

The meetings will be held in Building C, the least damaged of the three buildings that make up the almost 4 million-square-foot convention center, said Mark Zimmerman, the GWCC's general manager.

The news comes after the GWCC pulled the plug on meetings it was supposed to host this week, including a volleyball tournament. That contest -- the Big South Qualifier -- eventually found a home at the Cobb Galleria Centre, the Georgia International Convention Center and other large venues.

The two shows will have an estimated economic impact of about $14 million, the ACVB said.

Getting the GWCC in shape to accommodate the two conventions also helped hospitality leaders boast that no big shows have been lost because of the storm. Hospitality officials reassured customers throughout the week that they were working feverishly to get the center -- the fourth biggest in the country -- back on line.

"This is saved economic impact," Richardson said.