By VenuesNow and R.V. Baugus
The VenuesNow Hall of Honor celebrates industry professionals who have reached the highest level across all sectors of the business during their long and distinguished careers. A small number of honorees whose professional lives exemplify excellence, integrity, ingenuity, and a passion for the business are selected by VenuesNow editorial staff and inducted each year.
This year’s class is made up of legends in their respective fields.
Peggy Daidakis was the first woman to run a major American convention center, and her tenure lasted 
through nine Baltimore mayors. Daidakis retired on September 1.
Daidakis joined the staff of Mayor William Donald Schaefer in 1973 and served in his administration for over four years. She began her career in the convention industry in 1978 when Schaefer assigned her to be part of the team that opened the BCC in 1979. In July of 1986, Daidakis was appointed by Mayor Clarence “Du” Burns as the first female director of a national convention center. She was instrumental in planning the BCC’s expansion, which tripled its size to be the largest public assembly meetings and exhibition venue in the State of Maryland.
In 2013, Daidakis was honored by the Convention Industry Council (CIC) as an inductee to the CIC Hall of Leaders, one of the highest honors in the hospitality industry. That same year, she also received the International Association of Venue Managers’ Convention Center Leader of the Year Award. The BCC serves as a model to facilities around the country and has been honored to receive numerous industry awards for excellence.
Dot Lischick, after 26 years at Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs, this year celebrated her retirement, which came after COVID as she was dedicated to getting the venue through the difficult period before moving on to her next chapter.
Lischick has been as much a part of the roughly 8,000-seat World Arena as the thousands of concerts, trade shows and sporting events that the venue has hosted since it opened near Interstate 25 and Circle Drive on the city’s south side.
Originally called the Colorado Springs World Arena, the $57.2 million venue was financed largely with private donations, along with infrastructure contributions by the city and El Paso County.
Lischick worked for a Florida company that was hired to run the World Arena and its adjacent Ice Hall, and she oversaw operation of the facilities when they opened. When a local nonprofit that owns the World Arena took over its day-to-day operation in 2002, Lischick joined the organization as an employee.
Ken Young over the past 50 years has owned three concessions firms and continues as an owner of multiple minor league baseball teams.
A food service legend from hot dogs to the Super Bowl to ‘The Simpsons’ Ken Young may be the most unassuming executive in sports and entertainment. Over the past 50 years, Young has owned three concessions firms and six minor league teams, but you’d never know it at the Super Bowl, where he could be seen hawking official game programs. Working basically around the clock on game days, Young and his crews ran 400 to 600 workers, generated more than $900,000 from selling game programs and merchandise at 16 Super Bowls, plus 26 Outback Bowls and seven national championship football games.
