Google has added a new search feature to their mobile user interface to find events both locally and by type and by date. For example, if I search for [seo events] on mobile, I get a listing of upcoming SEO events. Here is a screen shot:
As you can see, you can filter the events afterwards by today, tomorrow, this week, etc.
You can also search for events near me, events in a location, events about topic X.
This works on mobile search and in the Google mobile app.
If you are an event web site, here are the developer docs on how to add the appropriate markup to your pages to try to get into the events feature.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google+.