Difficulty implementing designer-provided layout

Hello all,

I am currently working on my first "from-scratch" Drupal site using the Omega theme as a starting point. My client had a design firm create a design for them, and it is my task to implement it. However, I'm having a bit of difficulty implementing a portion of the layout in Omega.

I've attached a file that shows the layout, with the highlighted yellow portion being the part I am having trouble with. As you can see, there are really three "sections" to the main content area. Above the main content (and page title), there is an image slider. Then, on the right side of the main content, there is a column that contains social media links and a list of related blog posts.

First, I'm having trouble, figuring out how to create a region for the image slider, since the left menu needs to run from top to bottom in this area. I currently have a Content Section with a Content Zone with two Regions -- Sidebar First (3 cols) and Content.

Second, since the right column doesn't extend the whole length of the zone (it starts underneath the image slider), I'm also having trouble figuring out how to place a region for it.

It doesn't appear that Omega really supports nested regions.

I do have significant knowledge of PHP, but my Drupal coding experience is very limited (read: practically non-existent).

Would anyone have suggestions on how to implement this layout?

Thanks for your help.