Create an item content (e.g. one or several widgets in a particular configuration) and use it in multiple places on your site. When you update the reusable item, the changes will be visible wherever it is being displayed on the site.
setup a Publications listing to display 1 or more author's/authors' work (you'll need the SSO ID of someone with publications in Symplectic); change the filtering options
Suggestions for the Grid, List, Carousel, Slideshow widgets:
Create a listing to display all Articles on the site; then change the filtering options to show only blog articles, press releases or calls for papers. If taxonomies have been setup for Article content types, try adding taxonomy terms to article content then filtering by terms, or add taxonomy filter options to the top of the listing
Create a listing by handpicking pages from the site
Create a listing whose items link to external pages