AFNOR puts faces to sports standards

In conjunction with the major sporting event of 2024 in Paris, AFNOR is launching an ephemeral photo exhibition entitled “AFNOR gives faces to sports standards”.
The aim of this initiative is to raise public awareness of the usefulness of voluntary standards and to deconstruct preconceived ideas about their restrictive nature.
Located on the way to the Stade de France and the aquatic center in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, a route that will be used by thousands of fans this summer, the freely-accessible exhibition on the railings of the building housing the Group’s head office features 17 portraits of employees.

The importance of voluntary standards in sport

Voluntary standards play a crucial role in sport, guaranteeing the safety, performance and practicability of equipment and infrastructures.
They are often perceived as restrictive, when mistakenly equated with regulation, whereas in reality they are facilitating tools.
Our contributor Etienne Hubert, himself a top-level sportsman, talked about this here in a video a few years ago.
With this exhibition, the AFNOR group aims to raise public awareness of the usefulness of voluntary standards by humanizing and demystifying them.
By showing photographs of AFNOR employees enjoying amateur sports, the exhibition aims to demonstrate that these standards are implemented by passionate and competent people.
The work of employees working in AFNOR’s standardization activity (one of the Group’s four business lines) consists of overseeing the design of standards by bringing players in the sector concerned to the table, in a spirit of general interest, and identifying subjects that could give rise to new standards.
Employees from the Group’s other businesses (publishing, training, certification) took part in the photo shoot.

Faces and standards

The exhibition is deployed on a strategic axis, between the RER B station at La Plaine-Stade de France and the Stade de France itself, at the corner of 11, rue Francis de Pressensé in Saint-Denis, address of AFNOR headquarters.
A route used by thousands of tourists and spectators.
It is free of charge and open to all visitors to the 2024 sporting event.
The photos were taken by photographer Arthur Enard.
Each photograph in the exhibition features an AFNOR employee practicing an amateur sport.
In all, 17 sports are represented, each illustrating a particular voluntary standard.
For example, Amy, a project manager in standardization and amateur rugby player, plays on pitches where the turf is maintained in accordance with European standard NF EN 12233 , which recommends a height of 2 to 3 centimetres to ensure good playability and optimum ball bounce.
Don’t miss this unique exhibition throughout the summer of 2024!