Looking for a good Mini - Panels tutorial
I have not found a tutorial specifically for mini-panels, but it works similarly to page panels.  nodeone.se has an excellent tutorial on using Page Panels (Page Manager &amp; Panels modules enabled).

Mini Panels are closely related , but behave more like blocks.  When you define a mini-panel it will be available in the panels UI for placement as well as in the admin/structures/blocks form.  The major difference from blocks is that mini-panels are smart.  They can take context from the node, user and other sources and display accordingly.  They also connect to a View.

There is one thing to observe when defining a mini-panel.  The UI is slightly different from Page Panels and the first time I used them, I could not figure out how to add content to one.  To access the "content" and other setting forms select the Panels breadcrumb  menu at the top.