It's very tempting when your event has finished to say, "That's it - mission accomplished," and put your feet up with a copy of Heat for a few days (metaphorically speaking). In fact, your work may only be half completed if you want to offer the best service to delegates and for your gathering to remain in people's minds as head and shoulders above the rest.

• Conference proceedings

On to your organisation's website as fast as humanly possible! They need to capture the key points from small group discussions, offer downloadable versions of each speaker's presentation (assuming presenters are happy with this - sometimes copyright issues get in the way), and give those who couldn't attend the names and contacts details for your organisation and perhaps those who facilitated break out sessions.

• Networking

Your delegate list will already have contact information on it, but it may also be useful for people to be emailed post-conference with a list of who else was in their workshop or discussion group. Why? Because despite the wonderful intervention of name badges, our names still get misheard or forgotten, or we don't wear our badge, or it's unreadable, or it's on the lapel of a jacket which we then take off.

Imagine the frustration of thinking that someone in a workshop had just come up with a great idea, only to find the session is ending and in the hurly--burly of plenary and home time, you don't get a chance to find out their name and employer. As the PA, you can help people make and maintain these links with one another.

If you work in a field where symposia are a frequent event, a list of who signed up for which workshop would be very useful when targeting emails to potential delegates. If someone went to the "Marketing Wi-Fi to the Travel Sector" discussion, then they are a prime candidate for a working group meeting on "Wi-Fi and Air Travel".

• Spreading the message

If there are Standing Committees or ad-hoc discussion groups forming from links made at your conference, putting news of their latest meeting on your company's website is a useful way of keeping everyone abreast of developments. This doesn’t have to be formal minutes - a bullet pointed list or action points can be enough to get a flavour of what happened. This is especially useful and stimulating for colleagues who may live in remoter parts and who will not be meeting colleagues frequently.

If you work for a global company, perhaps you could talk to colleagues abroad to see if they have contacts, groups, conferences or meetings coming up. If you can publicise them on your website, it informs the UK contingent of what else is going on in the world. It would be very simple to then begin to encourage international networking among delegates.

• Evidence for their portfolio

If you work in a field where people must prove that they are keeping their skills and knowledge up to date, it's worth applying to the governing body for Continuing Professional Development (or Education) to get points for your conference. The amount of points will vary depending on who is speaking and on the length of the event. There may be a small fee and you must ask those who want the points to sign in; signatures must be kept for five years in some cases. This is because the awarding body has the right to inspect someone's training records to ensure that they are attending events and exposing themselves to new ideas.

• Venue evaluation

Don't forget to thank your colleagues, whether the event was held internally or externally. Professional conference staff work damned hard to accommodate us and our frequently-changing requirements. If you held something in-house, I'd bet the ranch that you were relying on your PA colleagues, the reception staff and facilities personnel at the very least. Don't forget to thank them - maybe an email to "All internal" would be appropriate so that everyone knows about their hard work.

• Next time

You will already have a comprehensive list of delegates who you can email with the dates of next year's event. Why not talk to colleagues to see if there is anyone in particular who would be a good partner in the planning process? There may be someone your company wants to woo, and asking for their input to a major event is one way of opening the door to discussion about wider topics.

Don't forget about trade press, too. As your gatherings become more international in reputation and more cutting-edge in thinking and working, industry journalists are going to want to get involved.

Some of these may seem strange ideas if you are used to holding stand-alone events, but they can benefit your employer - and you - in the long run. In part, conferences are about stimulating our thinking and if you can contribute to stimulating discussion between times, then what can be wrong with that? After all, the bets way to predict the future is to invent it.