Mortgage brokers from a Gloucester-based firm carried out a 'speed dating' session with lenders at its annual conference.

Around 100 mortgage brokers, insurance brokers and support staff from The Mortgage Brain took part in a hugely successful event on October 11 at Gloucester Rugby's Kingsholm headquarters.

Enzo Mora, The Mortgage Brain's CEO, said: "We have an annual conference and we invite the whole firm to Gloucester to attend. It's an opportunity to say hello to everybody and train them on the latest mortgage products that are out there in the marketplace.

"It's usually a focus around how we can maximise affordability for clients and look at unique and specific criteria that lenders offer. This year's was inviting building societies across the country - not the high street lenders - that have not quirky but a different criteria in how they look at assessing a client's application and affordability.

"It's just ensuring that our team have got that knowledge available to them when they are looking to qualify customers based on affordability for a mortgage.

"The format is we had 11 round tables with different building societies that were presenting their criteria and affordability, and my team of advisers would work their way around these 11 tables every 15 minutes throughout the day. A bit like speed dating!

"It's a win-win for both parties. We charged the lenders for being there and they get the opportunity to sit themselves down in front of 60 brokers in one day and we get to cover the costs of the day through the sponsorship from each of the lenders.

"The lenders love it. They are targeted on how many brokers they can get themselves in front of so it's a huge win for them to be able to do 60 brokers all in one day.

"We also had an additional 22 lenders and four insurance companies that had display stands there and were manning those stands so we then had the opportunity to go around and meet those lenders and talk to them all individually in addition to the round tables."

The building societies represented included Monmouthshire Building Society, Nottingham Building Society, Skipton Building Society and West Bromwich Building Society.

The other lenders included Barclays, Halifax, Nationwide and Birmingham Midshires.

Mr Mora added: "The day was about collaborating ideas to support our buyers onto the property ladder by working with smaller regional building societies who know the area and the local demographic. The ethos of our building societies has always been to put the customer first and focus on home ownership.

"They generally have wider, more flexible criteria and will often listen to the story, avoiding the computer says no. So it was about embracing new ideas, lenders not on the high street and seeing what story they can tell us.

"It's a huge learning opportunity for our team to get to meet all the lenders and talk to them all and their representatives."

Mr Mora said that following the training sessions with the lenders the afternoon was capped off with an awards ceremony rewarding the team on their successes over the last 12 months.

He added: "We started the conference in its current format at Gloucester Rugby Club last year. It was such a success that we decided to run it again this year. It was a slightly bigger event based on more lenders being available this year than last year and hopefully we'll grow it again next year and continue to run it every year thereafter.

"Gloucester Rugby Club is the perfect venue for a Gloucester-based company and it gets all those travelling from all around the country to experience what Kingsholm is all about."

For more information about The Mortgage Brain, call 0333 340 8888 or visit themortgagebrain.net