Here’s an excellent post about how to prepare 5-minute talks.

1. In a 5 minute talk, you can usually only teach people about one new thing.  The key to framing the talk is to figure out that One New Thing, and then build the rest of the talk around it.

2. So, the very first step is to pick the absolute best single visual to show the One New Thing.  This is usually an awesome plot.

3. Make this plot the first slide you prepare.  Don’t start with history and motivation and data acquisition and analysis techniques — if you do, you’ll prepare way too much material, and find yourself at 4 minutes and 59 seconds without having actually gotten to your results.