Attendees at a recent virtual event have revealed that their biggest focus for their business is directly acquiring new clients.

This year’s Mortgage Vision event, hosted by Mortgage Brain, attracted over 800 registrations. It revealed that advisers are looking to the future, with 42% of respondents saying the biggest priority for their business is increasing their client base, the most popular response.

Questioned on what consumer trends they believe will have the biggest impact on their own mortgage process, the increased need for help for self-employed buyers and the shifting Stamp Duty thresholds shared top spot taking 37% of the votes each.

Looking at the issue of technology, and what sort of innovation would make the biggest difference to their business, half of delegates voted for ‘an aggregated affordability platform that uses data from lender calculators’.

So far, 79% of delegates have returned to the virtual environment at least once since the event took place in September.

Neil Wyatt, sales and marketing director at Mortgage Brain, said: “The appetite among advisers to continue to develop their skills and build even more successful businesses is undiminished, despite the difficulties of 2020. It’s hugely encouraging that they are already looking to the future, both in terms of how to bring in new clients and also what issues are likely to be the priorities for those new clients.

“We had a fantastic response to this first virtual version of the Mortgage Vision event from attendees on the day itself, and the fact that so many advisers are returning to the virtual environment to catch up on presentations they would like to revisit demonstrates the ongoing value these events provide to advisers.”