Using menus anywhere on page - how to stop them expanding by default when not used in menu region ( e.g. in a block or panel)?
The solution I chose in the end was to hand-code a drop down, based on the HTML markup output by a Views Exposed Filter form that I am already using (this also means that the look and feel is consistent).

So I created a block in the usual way and added the code shown below, and then in my 2-column minipanel added this block to the 2nd column and then added my minipanel to the panel page. The other column, 1st, of the columns contains the views exposed filter as discussed. See screenshots below, after the code:

&lt;form&gt;
&lt;select name="field_type_value" class="form-select" onChange="document.location = this.value" value="GO"&gt;
&lt;option value=""  selected="selected" disabled="disabled"&gt;Add something to our map!&lt;/option&gt;
&lt;option value="node/add/local-resource"&gt;person&lt;/option&gt;
&lt;option value="node/add/local-resource"&gt;organisation&lt;/option&gt;
&lt;option value="node/add/local-resource"&gt;project&lt;/option&gt;
&lt;option value="node/add/local-resource"&gt;wifi hotspot&lt;/option&gt;
&lt;/select&gt;
&lt;/form&gt;


Other features in the code above:


Dropdown Form, when click on element, go to link without hitting a submit button - credit: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4347080/dropdown-form-when-click-on-element-go-to-link-without-hitting-a-submit-button
Call-to-action "Add something to our map!" is not a selectable item in itself, so made this unselectable - credit: http://www.lattimore.id.au/2005/06/18/disable-options-in-a-select-dropdown-element/


Remaining thing to do:


The URLs each to call a different add content type form for each of the subtypes of content - I'll need to work out how to select a certain template from a URL or otherwise, but will be basing my customised content type form off this answer: How do you theme a content type&#39;s create/edit form in Drupal 7?