I've been to a number of them with my local regional writing organization (taught one, too). When I've attended, it usually because I need to either show up to something and be seen or need to see one of the board members of the organization. The writing organization is focused on freelancers, and many of their workshops are non-fiction oriented. I write novels.
Topics? Let's see. One was on queries for magazines. Though that was non-fiction oriented, I actually did get something out of it that I was apply to submitting queries for novels. The others I attended were interesting, but I didn't take anything away. A member of our group attended an all day workshop the organization sponsored. It was on getting fiction published. The writer actually came back very discouraged--evidently, much of the workshop was focused on simply how hard it was to get published and not as much on things that could be done on improving the odds. Some of the information he relayed back was also outdated. When he'd gone, I think his expectations had been quite a bit different than what he got.
So, don't expect magic to happen, but certainly go if you think you might get anything out of it.
