How to display posts only in sidebar (WP as CMS)

I’m using wordpress as a CMS to create a small business site that non-technical users can change as needed. The site will be made up entirely of WP Pages and doesn’t need a blog.

I would, however, like to display “recent news” and “events” sections (containing recent posts) in the sidebar on the homepage as well as a few other pages. I would also like to display a “directions” and “address” section in the sidebar on a few other pages. And on yet another page I need to create categories and subcategories that connect to subPages located in the sidebar.

I first thought of creating Categories and then Asides, but I didn’t understand how to put the actual posts in the sidebars. I do undertand one can create different sidebar templates, but I still feel a little stuck.

My questions are: 1) Is this possible with WordPress and 2) Is there anyone that can point me in the right direction so I can figure out how to create these various sidebars. I just need a bit of help on how to make this happen.

Thanks in advance.