Yes, also most years in any field don't have a single revolutionary paper to which you can point. The reason I suggest looking at the workshops at conferences

Yes, also most years in any field don't have a single revolutionary paper to which you can point. The reason I suggest looking at the workshops at conferences is that each one is effectively a cluster of ~6-8 talks and papers / posters with a common theme. Moreover, the ideas for these workshops are submitted, reviewed, and chosen by experts in the field so you know at least someone thinks it's an interesting developing area.