CodeMash 2012 has sold out. In 24 minutes. Last year, we sold 900 seats in 3.5 days. The year before, we sold 700 seats in 32 days. But this year …. 1200 seats in 24 minutes.

CodeMash is a volunteer, developer-organized conference held in Sandusky, Ohio, in January. Yes, I said January. We bring folks from all over to the snow belt in January to learn new programming languages, new software development techniques, and have a really good time. This year, we’ll have 108 unique technical sessions, as well as a day filled with tutorials. And because it’s not enough to fill the days with geekery, we have evening events, like a game room. And out of the ordinary talks at CodeMash After Dark. We even have things for geek children (KidzMash) and for spouses who come to manage the geek children (CodeMash Families). We have a water park party and a band and a jam session. If you don’t like the sessions (that the organizers chose from over 700 submissions), we have Open Spaces, where you can convene your own session on a topic of your choice, or join in on one that someone else created.

Did I mention it’s in Ohio? In January? And that we wear shorts and flip flops in the Kalahari Resort/Indoor Water Park where it’s balmy inside and we can watch the snow pile up outside?

Did I mention the amazing speakers? Internationally known speakers and authors like Andrew Glover and Scott Hanselman and Bruce Eckel. And Jon Skeet, coming over the pond from London. Carl Quinn (of the Java Posse and Netflix). Bill Pugh (father of FindBugs). Cool emerging topics like Clojure and ClojureScript. Node.js and Backbone.js. And so much more.

Continental breakfast? Pshaw. If you’re coming to Ohio in the middle of winter, we thought we should feed you. There are eggs. And fruit. And bacon. Yes, bacon. This year, we even have a bacon sponsor. Yes, really.

So if you wondered why eventbrite and twitter were abuzz this morning between 10:24* and 10:48, it was because 1200 software developers were registering for a conference in January. In Ohio. And we’ll be contemplating how the heck to handle registration in 2013.

*Why 10:24, you ask? Well, today IS October 24, of course. And if you want to know why we chose 10:24, you can read the President of CodeMash, Jim Holmes’ blog, where you will learn that “in 1901 Anna Edson Taylor was the first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel”. And we did want to commemorate her accomplishment. Didn’t I mention the geek part?