When a storm hits, the power rarely goes off at a convenient moment. One outage can stop work, put people at risk and leave you counting the cost in downtime for days. The UK’s storm season is already under way, and the sites that ride it out best are the ones with a plan in place before the first warning is issued. Here’s how to build a backup power plan that keeps your sire running, whatever the forecast.

Christmas markets, ice rinks and New Year celebrations bring some of the biggest crowds of the year, often into parks, fields and town centres that weren’t built for them. The essentials of event infrastructure don’t change with the seasons. What does change is everything around them. It’s dark by 4pm, the ground is already saturated before the first visitor arrives, and the forecast can turn within the hour. Here are five things winter changes and how to plan for each one.

Winter doesn’t arrive on your site all at once. It creeps in. The first morning you start work in the dark, the first access route that turns to mud, the first frost that stops work until mid-morning. By the time winter properly sets in, the sites that planned ahead are still moving, and the ones that didn’t are playing catch-up.

Every survey tool answers a slightly different question. Some tell you how high something is, others tell you exactly where it is, and the best ones can tell you both. Pick the wrong one, and you either pay for accuracy you don’t need, or you end up with a tool that can’t do the job.