Project management associations will have to remain relevant to current—and future—members

In an increasingly global world, project management professionals have to network across borders.

Associations can help, but they'll have to make some changes first, says Hugh Woodward, president of Macquarie Business Concepts, Hamilton, Ohio, USA and a contributing author to the book Project Management Circa 2025.

In his chapter, "Connection and Networking Circa 2025: The Role of Professional Associations," he explores several factors sparking shifts in the way associations operate:

1. The Changing Way We Live

   Associations can no longer rely on pulling members from the same developed countries.

   Some of the fastest growing markets right now include the developing nations in Asia. And others in Latin America-like Brazil, for example-are booming with new projects.

   For many associations, their national identity will become less important as more people from other parts of the world become members. Instead, local needs will be served through a network of chapters or branches.

2. The Changing Way We Work

   Increasingly, team members work half a world away from one another. That means they're relying less on traditional, face-to-face methods of networking with colleagues and coworkers.

   "The way people work today is changing very rapidly, so if they] want to be employed in the future, they need to be prepared and continually educate themselves," Mr. Woodward says.

   And they're going to be looking for help as they make that transition.

3. The Changing Way We Connect

   Networking has been and will remain one of the fundamental functions of associations.

   "The need [for networking] is greater because the traditional ways have gone away," he says. "Twenty years ago when I was working as a project manager, we tended to have project teams that were all local."

   But now the conference rooms and whiteboards of yore have been replaced with online collaboration tools.

   And the software is only going to become more sophisticated as time goes on. The project managers of 2025 will have grown up on texting and social networking websites, and Mr. Woodward stresses that associations that don't continuously modernize their channels of communication will become obsolete.

What It All Comes Down To …

Mr. Woodward says in order to survive well into the future, associations will have to:

• Meet the needs of their members and prospective members
• Provide a sense of community, with an emphasis on enabling their members to congregate physically, even in a world characterized by frugal travel budgets
• Offer opportunities to network and facilitate the process of finding jobs
• Provide credentials differentiated by industry
• Advocate for project managers with every entity likely to impact their careers

"The associations that are performing these tasks with excellence in 2025 will undoubtedly grow and prosper," he says. "The others will inevitably fade away."