How can I print messages in a Panel layout template? Printing the drupal messages in page.tpl.php is easy:

&lt;?php print render($messages); ?&gt;


How can I go about doing a similar thing in my Panel layouts?

Notes:


I realise there is 'status messages' pane you can use - I wish to avoid this since admin staff will forget to include it on new pages
I definitely wish to do it in the Panel template because there is a section above where the messages should display that is set by the admin staff
I have tried simply putting that code into mylayout.tpl.php, it didn't work


Here's an example of what I am trying to do:



Is there something I can do in a pre-process function to get this to work?

EDIT:

Thanks to @Beebee I rediscovered the template_preprocess_LAYOUT function in my layout's .inc file and added

$variables['messages'] = drupal_get_messages();


now both $variables['messages'] and $messages exist when the template is called but they contain an array of messages rather than the usual rendered output in a string.
What do you think about using Panels Everywhere?
You could then add a message pane to your Default site template and avoid 1.

Also you can disable Block from now on, because all parts of your site, are now panels.