[jasonwatkinspdx]

Start with the foundational paper(s) on the topic. Then use google scholar or your bibliography tool of choice to see who's cited it. It takes a little work but just burn down the list reading abstracts as well as noting how heavily each of these papers has in turn been cited. Those are likely the most influential derived works. It's common for grad students to do survey papers as well, so keep an eye out for those as they often give you a great roadmap to the current state of things.

Also pay attention to authors. If someone has done an influential paper on a topic, it's likely there will be additional work or tech reports in that area on their homepage or with their research group.

To find conferences/venues just note where the more recent papers are published.