Yesterday I got to attend my first user group, it was a great experience and I really recommend it to any Data schoolers.
The most obvious point is the networking. Whether you attend a Tableau, PBI or Alteryx user group, you will meet users of different levels and possibly people who work for one of these tools. As consultants networking is key as you could hear about opportunities, positions others have held that would interest you or simply learn more about use cases relevant to different industries which will definitely help once on a placement.
A large part of the Alteryx user group I attended was about Control containers, which is a feature rather unknown in the latest version of Alteryx (2023.1). The presentation gave me an insight into the many ways they can be used as well as why they were created. While my knowledge of Alteryx is not (yet) advanced talking with other users really gave me the ability to understand the context in which they are required and what problems they solve.
You also get to learn about the community, alteryx conferences and other places you might be interested in visiting to get more alteryx knowledge and once again more networking.
You will improve your presenting skills, there are so many opportunities to present, either you can present some features in the product, use cases or some work you have performed! Power BI User group has a data challenge, every session you can present your report for 5 minutes, receiving feedback and gaining experience into presenting a visualisation.
Finally, feed food and drinks. Got to end on the best note, pizza, beer, wine, that's what you should expect at a user group. Maybe a cheeky trip to the pub too!