This article analyzes the results of projects aimed at developing territories and attracting the attention of communities to local symbolic resources, implemented in Nizhny Novgorod and two rural municipal districts of the Nizhny Novgorod region. The diverse formats of involvement, group interaction for the transfer of skills, mastering techniques for working with territorial symbols by local communities through interdisciplinary educational and outreach programs, research expeditions and laboratories are discussed, in which symbolic capital serves as the basis for the design of business chains based on local identity and including local symbols in the heritage economy. The patterns of forming creative startups around the manifested symbols are generalized, the most popular types of entrepreneurial activities and initiatives in the field of creative industries are identified.